ZECHARIAH
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THE PROPHET OF HOPE
By Rev. F. B. Meyer
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THE
PROPHET OF HOPE
Studies in Zechariah
"BY
F. B. Meyer, B.A.
Author of "The Way into the Holiest," "Our Daily Homily,'
VITA Efr LUX
Chicago New York Toronto
Fleming H. Revell Company
Publithtrt of Evangelical Littrature
Copyright 1900
By Fleming H. Revell Company
PREFACE.
THERE are several matters of a critical nature
which do not come within the scope of this
book ; such as the quotations from it in the
Gospels, and the difference in style between the earlier
and later chapters. These are questions that must
be discussed before another audience than that which
I address, and by a more competent hand.
It has been my single aim to give the salient fea-
tures and lessons of each chapter, with the object of
alluring the Bible student to a more searching and
careful acquaintance with this Prophet.
Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi, complete the Old
Testament canon — their faces turned toward the
sunrise, but conscious that darkness still brooded
deep over their contemporaries. They remind one
of the crisp breeze that awakes a little before the
dawn, and announces its advent, to hush itself into
silence and expectancy till the sun appears.
As one who has found spoil, which he would fain
share, the author writes across this prophetic treatise,
Dig here s and hopes that many will be attracted by
Zechariah's holy and eager spirit, through which God
spake.
The title of this little book lays stress on one thought
which pervades the prophecy of Zechariah. He is
pre-eminently the Prophet, as the Apostle Peter is
the Apostle, of Hope.
J. fh, ;TLLct;2/u
CONTENTS.
PAGE
9
I. The Permanence of God's Words
II. The Myrtle Valley
III. The Second Vision
IV. The Man with the Measuring Line
V. Joshua the Priest
VL The Candlestick
VII. Going Forth
VIII. Christ — Priest and King
IX. Fasts Turned to Feasts
X. Good News for Prisoners of Hope
XI. God's Sowings
XII. The Shepherd of Israel
XIII. The Spirit of Grace and Supplication
XIV. "Things which must shortly come to Pass" 137
XV. The Millennial Age, and this 145
17
24
31
40
50
61
69
79
91
I02i
114
126
THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH.
I.
Cbe permanence of 6cD'6 'QClor&.
(Zechariah i., 1-6.)
The Prophet Zechariah was born in the latter
years of the captivity in Babylon. His name means
one whom Jehovah remembers. It was evidently
a common name among the chosen people, as it is
borne by several others in the course of Old Testa-
ment story. How good it is to be always sure that
God thinks of us — even when we forget or believe
not ! He remaineth faithful. "I am poor and needy,
yet the Lord thinketh upon me. How precious are
thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the
sum of them! If I should count them, they are
more in number than the sand."
Zechariah came of a priestly family. His grand-
father (Iddo) is expressly mentioned as accom-
panying Zerubbabel, the Prince of Judah, and
Joshua, the high priest, back to their desolated coun-
try (Ezra ii. i, 2; and Neh. xii. 4). His father,
Berechiah, probably died when Zechariah was yet a
9
lO THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
child, and the boy was reared by the grandfather;
he is therefore spoken of as the son of Iddo, and
from the earhest his young mind must have been
imbued with the traditions and habits of the priestly
caste.
The first expedition of exiles, to which we have
referred, reached Palestine about twenty years be-
fore our story opens. The immense majority of the
Jews were too well circumstanced in the wealthy
land of their conquerors to be in any hurry to re-
turn ; and only some fifty thousand souls had risked
the dangers of the desert and the privations of the
new settlement — but these would comprise, without
doubt, the flower of the race for piety and national
pride.
The majority of the returned exiles probably be-
took themselves to their ancestral portions in various
parts of the country, only a comparatively small
number settling among the charred and blackened
ruins of Jerusalem. The Book of Lamentations de-
scribes, in elegiacs broken with sobs, the condition
of the city, as their forefathers had left it seventy
years before ; and that period of desolation and waste
must have still further added to the despair of
the situation.
How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a
cloud in his anger !
He hath cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty
of Israel,
And hath not remembered his footstool in the day of his
anger.
THE PERMANENCE OF GOD'S V/ORD. II
The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob,
and hath not pitied;
He hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the
daughter of Judah;
He hath burned up Jacob like a flaming fire;
He hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were
of a garden;
He hath destroyed his Place of Assembly (Lam. ii.).
Amid these piles of blackened ruins, the handful
of impoverished captives settled ; and for some time
after their arrival occupied themselves in rearing
dwellings for themselves, and in setting up some at
least of those religious observances of which for so
long they had been necessarily deprived (Ezra iii.
3-6). The foundation of the new Temple was laid
shortly afterward amid shouts of joy, which were
overborne by the noise of weeping on the part of
those who had seen the first house in its glory —
"the ancient men."
It was a fair dawn, but was soon overcast ; for the
enemies of the returned people set themselves to
poison the mind of Artaxerxes (Smerdis), who,
being a usurper and a magician, did not feel bound
to respect the decree of Cyrus, and ordered the
cessation of the work. And it ceased for fifteen
years (Ezra iv.). At the end of that time Haggai
the prophet, and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, began
to stir their fellow-countrymen to resume their neg-
lected toils. The political horizon had undergone a
great change in the interval; and there was every
reason to hope that Darius, who had headed a suc-
cessful conspiracy against the usurping Smerdis,
12 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
and had lately ascended the Persian throne, would
be favorable to the purpose of the Jewish exiles,
since he was a monotheist, and zealous for the restor-
ation of pure and spiritual religion. So it afterward
proved (Ezra v., vi., especially 7-12).
But the great difficulty experienced by the
prophets was with the Jews themselves. 'The time
was not come," they said, ''the time for the Lord's
house to be built." In the meanwhile they were
living in ceiled houses, whilst God's house lay
waste.
First Haggai spoke. On the first day of the
sixth month of the second year of Darius, he
pointed to the disasters beneath which the country
was groaning, that the dews of heaven were stayed
and the earth was unproductive ; that a drought lay
upon the land and upon the mountains, upon the corn
and wine and oil, upon men and cattle, and upon all
the labor of their hands ; that they sowed much and
brought in little; ate and had not enough; drank
and were not filled ; clothed themselves but were not
warm; earned wages which were dissipated as
though holes were at the bottom of the bag — and
urged that all these misfortunes were intended by
God as a remonstrance against their laxity and an
incentive to diligence. "Why?" saith the Lord of
hosts. "Because of my house that lieth waste, while
ye run, every man to his own house" (Hag. i. i-i i ) .
"Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and
Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all
the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the
THE PERMANENCE OF GOD'S WORD. 13
Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the
prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and
the people did fear before the Lord. Then spake
Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's mes-
sage unto the people, saying, I am with you, said
the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of
Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, Governor of Judah,
and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedech, the
high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the
people; and they came and did work in the house
of the Lord of Hosts, their God, in the four-and-
twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year
of Darius the King" (Hag. i. 12-15).
In the following month, the seventh, a very en-
couraging word came again through the mouth of
Haggai, predicting that the latter glory of the new
Temple should even excel that of the former one;
a glory not of gold or silver or precious stones, but
the spiritual radiance and splendor of Him who
was to be the Desire of all nations, and whose
advent was destined to invest that building with
eternal significance and interest (Hag. ii. 1-9).
The month after, "the Word of the Lord came
unto Zechariah." Probably the Word of the Lord
is ever circling through the world, as the waves of
wireless telegraphy through the air ; but there needs
an anointed, prepared, and receptive heart to receive
and translate the sacred impressions. In the case
of the prophets, however, there would be more than
this. They spoke as they were moved or borne along
by the Holy Spirit. When the apostle speaks of the
14 . THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
senses being exercised to discern good and evil, he
suggests that to each sense of the body there is a
corresponding one of the soul; and this, like that,
may become more or less acute. Seek after the
quickened, Spirit-touched soul-sense!
Be still and strong,
O Man, my Brother ! hold thy sobbing breath,
And keep thy soul's large window pure from wrong!
That so, as life's appointment issueth.
Thy vision may be clear to watch along
The sunset consummation-lights of death!
Zechariah prefaces his prophecies with a very
tender message. True, he does not slur over the
sins of the past. 'The Lord hath been sore dis-
pleased with your fathers." The memory of that
displeasure was only too recent, the signs too ob-
vious; but he hastens to accentuate the divine piti-
fulness and tender mercy. "Thus saith the Lord of
Hosts: Return unto Me, and I will return unto
you." There never yet was a backslider for whose
return the infinite love of God did not yearn, and
after whom it did not send messages like this. In
this the divine love exceeds human love. Even our
Lord could not depict the father of the prodigal
sending messages into the far country, where he
sat among the swine ; but this is precisely what God
does. Can you not hear the peal of the silver bells,
borne across the valley? "Return! return!" And
when thou art yet a great way off the Father will
see thee, and, being moved with compassion, will
run and fall on thy neck, and kiss thee much, and
THE PERMANENCE OF GOD'S WORD. 1 5
reinstate thee where thou wast at first. He remem-
bers sins no more.
The only fear was lest God should call in vain.
"Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former
prophets cried; * * * but they did not hear, nor
harken unto Me, saith the Lord." Though the
chosen people had suffered so terribly, there was a
pitiful possibility of the obstinacy of the former
generation reappearing in this. Each generation
insists on trying its own bitter experiences, un-
warned by the experiences of the preceding.
"Your fathers, where are they?" They were re-
bellious and sinned, and have passed away under
the divine judgments. "And the prophets, do they
live forever?" But even though the lips that utter
the divine Word wax cold in death, the Word itself
remains; and it shall have an ever-abiding force.
"But my words and my statutes, which I commanded
my servants the prophets, did they not overtake
your fathers?" — as a foe overtakes the flying fugi-
tive. So much so as to extort from them a confes-
sion of the righteousness of their doom; and they
turned and said, "Like as the Lord of Hosts thought
to do unto us, according to our ways and according
to our doings, so hath He dealt with us."
The conclusion is forcible and clear. The prophet
may die, but the divine word remains. Heaven and
earth may pass away, but no word of God shall
fail. All flesh is as grass, and all the glory thereof
as the flower of grass, more transient still ; but the
Word of the Lord is incorruptible, it liveth and
l6 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
abideth forever. The fulfilled predictions of the
past — whether threatenings like those which befell
the Jews, or promises like those realized in the ad-
vent of our Lord — all confirm the certainty that
"no word from God is void of power." Let us give
the more earnest heed then to his invitations, warn-
ings, threatenings, and promises, fashioning the
whole course of our lives by them, and ever remem-
bering that they are the asseverations of "the Lord
of Hosts."
That title is specially applied to the Divine Being
by the three post-exilic prophets. It occurs in this
Introduction, five times in six verses. How signifi-
cant ! Though the Jews had seen the vast hosts of
their enemies arrayed against them in battle, or
marshaled in their own distant lands, they were
assured that their Jehovah had vaster squadrons yet ;
and that all the powers of nature, all the restless
wills of men, all the unseen kingdoms of the dead,
and all the principalities and powers of the heaven—
the archangels, angels, seraphim and cherubim —
stood obedient to his sovereign sway, going, coming,
doing this or that, as He chose. Look up, child of
God ! thy Father is also the great King, who doeth
as He will "in the army of heaven, and among the
inhabitants of the earth." "Bless the Lord, all ye
his hosts, ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
Bless the Lord, O my soul !"
11.
(Zechariah i., 7-17.)
Three months had passed since the preceding
vision, and the month Sebat had come, when the
trees begin to shoot, and Zechariah says, "I saw by
night." What did he see?
If we may be allowed to follow the suggestion of
one of the commentaries, we may imagine that not
far from the prophet's home there was a green val-
ley, or bottom, filled with graceful myrtle trees,
amid which a water-course had its way. Thither
he may have been accustomed to resort for prayer,
as our Lord retired among the olive trees outside
Jerusalem. It is conceivable that ever since the
return of the exiles from Babylon he had paced
this green glade, pouring out his heart in words like
those which were afterward uttered by the Angel-
Intercessor : ''O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt Thou
not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of
Judah, against which Thou hast had indignation
these three-score and ten years?" It is pleasant to
pray in the open field of nature ; the expanse above
is suggestive of eternity and unchangeableness, and
all the sounds of Nature's varied orchestra, from
17
t8 the prophet of hope.
the rustle of the wind among the leaves to the long-
drawn wave-beat on the sand, are marvelously
adapted to be an accompaniment to the voice of
supplication.
There was a special significance in the presence
of the myrtles which grew in humble and fragrant
beauty around. The myrtle was a native of Persia
and Assyria. Esther's name, Hadassah, meant
myrtle. It was, therefore, significant of the return
of the exiles from the lands of the north; and its
humble beauty was an appropriate symbol of the
depressed condition of the chosen people, who could
no longer be compared to the spreading cedar, or
the deeply-rooted oak, but were like the myrtle,
which, though graceful and evergreen, is neverthe-
less an inconspicuous and unassuming plant. Many
believers are as the myrtle. Their heart is not
haughty, nor their eyes lofty ; neither do they exer-
cise themselves in great matters, nor in things too
wonderful for them. They still themselves, as a
child weaned from its mother; and their hope is in
the Lord for evermore.
On the night in question, which may have fol-
lowed a day of unusual exercise of spirit, Zechariah
thought that he was in his favorite valley, sur-
rounded by the myrtles ; and behold, in the midst of
them, '*a man riding upon a red horse; and behind
him" there was a group of companions, mounted on
horses, red, sorrel, and white. The whole valley
seemed alive with these mysterious figures. They
had doubtless been there whenever the prophet had
THE MYRTLE VALLEY. 19
paced to and fro, or knelt in intercession ; but never
before had his eyes been opened to see them. Ah!
how perpetually are our eyes holden, so that we do
not perceive the bands of God's marshaled angels
gathered to our succor. The fountain rises from the
desert sands, on which our Ishmaels are dying for
thirst; but we perceive it not. The mountains are
full of horses and chariots of fire; but we tremble
as though there were nothing to prevent the enemy
making an end of us. The glorious Lord engirds
us, as a broad river with its flashing surface might
encircle a city; but only to the anointed eye is his
defensive presence made manifest.
Naturally the prophet's curiosity was excited,
and he sought the significance of the heavenly
vision. 'Then said I, O my Lord, what are these?"
This inquiry was addressed to a celestial Friend
and Adviser, with whom Zechariah was in constant
fellowship. He often alludes to him as ''the Angel
that talketh with me" (9, 14, 19; iv. i, 4, 5; v. 5,
10; vi. 4). This celestial visitant must be dis-
tinguished from "the Angel of the Lord," referred
to in verse 12, and who could be none other than
the Angel of the Covenant, our blessed Lord Him-
self, to whom, also, the riders gave in their reports
(10, II).
It has often been the comforting reflection of in-
dividual saints that their lives were under the direct
tutelage and care of guardian angels. Still God
gives his angels charge over us to keep us. Still He
sends his angel before us, to bring us into the place
20 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
that He has prepared. Still the interpreting-angel
talks with us — or, as Jerome says, zvithin us — and
says, "I will show thee what these be."
The holy soul, which has its myrtle valley for
prayer, and has been accustomed through long years
to pour out its intercessions and supplications before
God, though it may have been with small response,
is the one for whom presently the veil shall drop
from the invisible world; and in that rapturous
moment the anointed eye will be opened to behold
the ministries of God's high angels, as they go to
and fro throughout the world on his embassies;
whilst the purged ear will become the auditor of
their elevated converse as they discuss the affairs
of men, and especially of those intercessions with
which Christ pleads for his own. "The man that
stood among the myrtle trees answered and said,
These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to
and fro through the earth." Then, as the prophet
waited and listened, he heard the report which the
angel-scouts handed in to headquarters, one in which
they agreed with perfect unanimity: *'We have
walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all
the earth sitteth still, and is at rest."
It was a time of almost universal peace. The new
empire of Cyrus had become securely settled, and
beneath the strong rule of his successors there was
a grateful cessation of the throes and convulsions
which had ushered in the fall of the empire of the
Chaldeans.
But to the peace and prosperity of all surrounding
THE MYRTLE VALLEY. 21
countries the condition of the returned remnant pre-
sented a notable and strange contrast. If any spot
should be verdant and radiant, surely it should
be the hill which the Lord had chosen for Himself;
and yet it was desolate. This astounding contrast
elicited from the Angel of the Covenant an earnest
entreaty that God would show Himself strong on
behalf of those whom He had brought back from
the land of the enemy. *'He answered (as though
He were speaking to the prophet's thoughts) and
said, O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt Thou not
have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of
Judah?"
This is a beautiful glimpse of the intercessions
which emanate from our Lord's unchangeable Mel-
chizedek priesthood. The believer having viewed
Him in his Aaronic ministry, by which He put away
sin through the sacrifice of Himself, derives great
comfort from considering Him as a Priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek; having no begin-
ning of days nor end of life, but abiding a Priest con-
tinually, and ever living to make intercession in the
heavenly temple for his people. "Simon, Simon,
Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you
as wheat; but I have prayed for thee." What un-
told benefit accrues to us from his ceaseless and
prevalent prayers!
"And the Lord (i. c, the Angel of the Covenant)
answered the angel that talked with me with good
words and comfortable words." It was as though
the Father had heard and answered the pleadings
22 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
of the Son, and returned Him an answer, which
he passed on to Zechariah's angel-guide; and then
the prophet in turn was bidden proclaim them with
the urgency and insistence of a cry: "Thus said
the Lord of Hosts : I am jealous for Jerusalem and
for Zion with a great jealousy."
More disclosures of God's will followed ; that He
was displeased with the nations, who had gone be-
yond his commission; that He had returned to Je-
rusalem with great mercies; that the holy house
should be built again; that the line of the builder
should be stretched again over Jerusalem; that the
cities of Judah were his cities, which should yet be
spread forth in prosperity; that the Lord should
yet comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.
Zechariah awoke; and, behold, it was a dream.
But was it not more? Did he not visit that valley
at daybreak with new and awful wonder? And
did not the people, when they heard what he had
seen, and the message which had been communi-
cated to them, pluck up new courage to prosecute
toils? If God was with them, who could stand
against them? If angels were encamping round
Jerusalem, how inevitable would be her resurrec-
tion from encumbering ruin! The return of God
to his city meant her return to the beauty that had
attracted the wonder and jealousy of the world (Psa.
xlviii.).
These words may come under the eye of some who
have sighed and cried over the desolations of the
house of God, whether of the universal Church, or
THE MYRTLE VALLEY. 23
of some beloved sphere of labor, on which they seem
to have expended prayers and tears in vain. Have
such waited for fifteeen years as Zechariah did?
Have they had their myrtle grove of supplication?
Have they remained steadfast and unmoved amid
universal surrounding declension? If they could
hear the good and comfortable words that are being
spoken, how glad and thankful they would be ! For
when men and women pray like this, they do but
echo the prayer of the great Intercessor yonder, and
their prayer is the sure precursor of the return of
God to his heritage with great mercy. Whenever
God lays the state of his Church on the hearts of his
people, so that they travail in birth for it, a power-
ful revival of his work is at hand.
Are you, my reader, desolate through the pressure
of long-continued sorrow? God's chastenings have
been greatly exaggerated by those who have helped
forward the affliction. What was once a busy scene
of active service is waste; your home is desolate;
your heart sad. Yet, be of good cheer! There is
One that ever liveth to intercede. Jesus has graven
you upon the palms of his hands. Your sad lot is
ever before Him. He will yet talk with you with
good words and comfortable ones. 'Turn" — they
are his own words — "O backsliding children; for I
am married unto you, saith the Lord." "I will heal
their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine
anger is turned away." ''He is able to save them to
the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He
ever liveth to make intercession for them."
III.
Cbc SeconD \)ieion.
(Zechariah i. 18-21.)
The next vision was full of comfort. The good
words and comfortable words of the previous chap-
ter are continued, like the long-drawn-out sweetness
of a lullaby.
As the little group of returned exiles looked nerv-
ously out on the mighty world-empires, which sur-
rounded and threatened them, they were filled with
alarm. How could they cope with them? There
were Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of
their companions, of the nations whom Nebuchad-
nezzar had settled in Samaria; Rehum the chancel-
lor, and Shimshai the scribe, so ready in their use of
the pen to exert influence on the great kings beyond
the river, to make the work of temple-building cease ;
and the reactionary influences at work in the far-dis-
tant court, always adverse to the resuscitation of a
subdued nation, like the Jews, which had given such
proofs of inevitable independence. Beneath the ir-
resistible pressure of these hostile forces the work of
temple-building had already ceased for fifteen years,
and there was every fear that the new resolve to arise
and build would meet with similar opposition and a
24
THE SECOND VISION. 25
similar fate. There was singular appropriateness,
therefore, in the prophet's vision : 'Then lifted I up
mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, four horns."
In the language of a pastoral people like the Jews,
the horn naturally represents the pride and power of
the ravager and oppressor of the flock. The Divine
Shepherd is heard from the very horns of the wild
oxen (Psalm xxii. 21) ; and Daniel speaks of the
horn which made war with the saints and overcame
them, until the Ancient of Days came. The wild
fury of man against the people of God is aptly de-
scribed by the irruption of a herd of tusked boars, by
the charge of the rhinoceros, or the rush of the wild
ox on a harmless, defenceless flock, which has no
power of resistance, but only of flight.
The number four reminds us of the cardinal points
of the compass, and indicates that, wherever the peo-
ple turned, there were foes, which were sworn to re-
sist their attempt to renew their national life. On
the north, Chaldea, Assyria, and Samaria; on the
south, Egypt and Arabia ; on the west, Philistia ; and
on the east, Ammon and Moab. And it is probable
that the Spirit of God looked beyond these to the
four Gentile monarchies, which have occupied, and
still occupy, the 'Times of the Gentiles," and which
were represented in the four metals of Daniel's
vision, or in the four great beasts, which one after
another emerged from the sea.
As yet Babylon and Medo-Persia alone had
arisen; Greece and Rome, the latter including the
kingdoms of modern Europe, were to come; but all
26 THE PROP HE T OF HOPE.
were included in this one comprehensive glance at
the kings of the earth, which set themselves, and the
rulers who took counsel together, against the Lord
and against His Anointed, saying :
Let us break their bands asunder
And cast away their cords from us.
We must not forget that God Himself gave these
world-powers their authority. He says, in Isaiah,
"I was wroth with my people; I profaned mine in-
heritance, and gave them into thine hand" (Isa.
xlvii. 6, y). And in Daniel He lifts the veil and
shows that the world-rulers represent not flesh and
blood merely, but malign and mighty spirits that
actuate and inspire them (Dan. x. 13-20). As long
as God's people are perfect in their loyalty and obed-
ience towards Him, they need fear the power of no
adversary whatsoever ; but when there is a break in
the holy connection which binds Him and them in an
inviolable safety, it seems as though all the forces of
evil are set free to bear down on and ravage them,
until their chastisement is completed, and they re-
turn to their first love.
If we were asked to name the four horns which
are ravaging the Church in the present day, we
should not hesitate to say that they are Priestcraft,
Worldliness, Christian Science, and Spiritualism.
Priestcraft, which substitutes the priest for the liv-
ing Saviour ; rites for faith ; and the sacrifice of the
Mass for that once offered and finished on the cross ;
and which is corrupting and undermining, by the
THE SECOND VISION. 27
accursed system of the confessional, the home-life of
our country, as it has that of every nation which has
fallen under its blighting scourge.
Worldliness, to which our Lord alludes in his de-
scription of the lusts, the strong desires for other
things, which enter into competition with the seed
sown in our hearts, and make it unfruitful.
Christian Science, which, under the specious use
of Christian terms, really eviscerates Christianity of
its essential doctrines, making sin an illusion and its
penalty a mortal dream ; denying the Atonement, and
the true nature of Jesus Christ ; and teaching men to
look on sin, sickness, and death, as matters of wrong
thinking rather than wrong being and doing.
Spiritualism, which reduces Christ to the level of
a medium, and works lying wonders by the aid of
seducing spirits.
As we look on these and kindred evils which are
just now invading and ravaging the professing
Church, we may v/ell adopt the words of the prophet :
"And I said unto the Angel that talketh with me,
What are these? And he answered me. These are
the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and
Jerusalem."
In every life there are similar experiences. Some-
times, when we lift up our eyes, we find ourselves
begirt with opposition and threatened by hostile pow-
ers. Think of the martyr-host who have witnessed
for God in every age, and who could reiterate the
words of the greatest Sufferer of all, "Many bulls
28 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
have compassed Me, strong bulls of Bashan have
beset Me round about ; they gape upon Me with their
mouth as a ravening and a roaring lion." Ignatius,
who complains that his custodians were like "ten
leopards, who only wax worse when they are kindly
treated"; Blandina, the girl slave; Germanicus, the
noble youth; the Waldenses, whose wrongs roused
Cromw^ell's wrath and Milton's muse; the Nether-
lands, in their long conflict with Philip, when the
leaders saw their homes covered again by the ocean
from which their ancestors had redeemed them;
Madame Guyon, beset by husband, mother-in-law,
servants and priests; Samuel Rutherford, and hun-
dreds of his time, harried by the fiercest and most
insatiable hate; William Tyndale, the celebrated
translator of the English Bible ; John G. Paton, beset
with savages — these are specimens of a multitude,
which no man can number, of every nation, and kin-
dred, and people, who have seen the vision of the
four horns.
But there is something beyond; and surely it is
not without significance that the prophet says : "The
Lord showed me four carpenters" (or smiths, r.v.).
We have no difficulty in decrying the sources of
alarm for ourselves ; but we need a Divine Hand to
reveal our assured deliverance. "And Elisha prayed
and said : Lord, I pray Thee open his eyes, that he
may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the
young man and he saw; and, behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire round about
Elisha."
THE SECOND VISION. 29
For Babylon, the "carpenter" was Cyrus ; for Per-
sia, Alexander; for Greece, the Roman; for Rome,
the Gaul. Very different from each other, very ruth-
less and unsparing; but very well adapted for their
work. Commenting on this passage, the late C. H.
Spurgeon said : ''He who wants to open an oyster
must not use a razor; for some works there needs
less of daintiness and more of force; Providence
does not find clerks, or architects, or gentlemen, to
cut off horns, but carpenters. The work needs a man
who, when he has work to do, puts his whole
strength into it, and beats away with his hammer, or
cuts through the wood that lies before him with
might and main. Let us not fear for the cause of
God; when the horns become too troublesome, the
carpenters will be forthcoming to fray them."
Remember how in every age He has found his ap-
propriate messenger. Athanasius frayed Arianism,
and Augustine, Manichaeism; Luther frayed the
power of the Pope in Germnay, as did Hugh
Latimer in England ; Wesley and Whitefield frayed
the religious indifference of the last century. When
Haldane went to Geneva, he frayed the scepticism
which was destroying the Helvetian and Gallic
Churches. The Lord knows where to find his serv-
ants, and when the predestined hour strikes, there
will stand the workman ready. "These are the horns
which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift
up his head ; but these are come to fray them, to cast
down the horns of the nations which lifted up their
horn against the land of Judah to scatter it."
30 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
O child of God ! there have been many horns en-
gaged in scattering thee. Year after year they have
wrought sad havoc in thy plans, and cost thee bitter
tears. But thine Almighty Friend is greatly dis-
pleased that they have hurt thee more than his pur-
poses of chastisement required, and He has resolved
that they shall be frayed. He is well able to do this ;
for He hath sworn that no weapon which is formed
against thee shall prosper, and that every tongue
which shall rise in judgment against thee shall be
condemned. Since the discipline has fulfilled its
purpose, it shall be stayed ; since the refining fire has
purged out the dross, it shall lie down ; since the win-
nowing fan has purged the chaff from the wheat, the
grain shall no longer be tossed in the breeze. Com-
fort ye, comfort ye, saith thy God. 'Tor a small
moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mer-
cies will I gather thee. In overflowing wrath I hid
my face from thee for a moment; but with ever-
lasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the
Lord thy Redeemer."
IV.
tTbe ^an witb tbe /iBeasurfng Xinc.
(Zechariah ii.)
A third vision was granted to Zechariah. '1
lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, a man with
a measuring line in his hand."
It was natural enough. We dream of what occu-
pies our waking thoughts; and probably Jerusalem
was full of surveyors, engaged in mapping out the
new streets and walls.
Some feeble attempts had already been made
towards rebuilding ; but as yet the ancient sites were
principally distinguished by blackened walls and
heaps of ruins. The walls of the city, especially, re-
sembled the rubble of a quarry. At last, however,
the national pride was awakening the common inter-
est of citizens for their city, of patriots for their
fatherland ; and the young man with the measuring-
line in his hand was the fitting embodiment of this
new spirit which was breathing throughout the na-
tion.
"Then said I, Whither goest thou ? And he said
unto me, 'To measure Jerusalem., to see what is the
breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof." It
was as though he were defining the limits of the
31
32 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
future city, indicating the direction the walls should
take, and where they should stay. ''Thus far," he
kept saying to himself. "The city will never get
beyond this boundary line. Grow as it may, it will
never exceed this." How apt we are to do this. We
are all given to forecasting the future, and place lim-
its, which God has never designed, on the growth of
the City of God.
The Sacrament avian comes with his measuring
line, and insists that Baptism, however administered,
and by whomsoever, is the limit ; and that all the bap-
tized, Protestants, Roman Catholics, or of the Greek
Church, are included in God's City; but he refuses
to include the member of the Society of Friends, or
the adherent of the Salvation Army. Slightly modi-
fying the ancient challenge, he says, ''Except ye be
baptized, ye cannot be saved."
The Pessimist comes with his measuring line, and
draws the plan of the City within the narrowest pos-
sible boundaries. He justifies his forecast by quot-
ing such a text as "Fear not, little Hock" ; or "Strait
is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto
life, and few there be that find it." Sometimes he
fears that he will not enter ; at other times he doubts
all others but himself. It may be that depression of
spirit, or long removal from contact with the mani-
fold activities of God in the world, induce these mor-
bid views — as with Elijah, who thought that he only
was left.
The Bigot comes with his measuring line and in-
sists that the City walls must coincide with his shib-
MAN WITH THE MEASURING LINE. 33
boleth, and follow the tracings of his creed. We
have known men much given to splitting hairs, and
making minute and often imaginary distinctions,
who have excommunicated all who did not exactly
agree with them. Very narrow is the enclosure they
mark out for future populations, and very scant their
acreage of the Holy City.
The Experimentalist is apt to refuse to consider as
Christians those who have not experienced exactly
the same doubts, fears, ecstacies, deliverances, and
cleansings, which he himself has felt. Before a man
may be included in his city, he must have gone
through a series of defined and successive steps or
chambers in the divine life.
The Universalist goes to the other extreme, and
practically builds his walls around the entire race of
man, including within their circumference every
member of the human family.
It is not for us to fix the boundaries, or insist on
our conceptions. These are secret things which be-
long to the Lord our God. On the one hand, He
only knows if those who call themselves and are con-
sidered Christians are really so; and He only can
detect the seven thousand who have not bowed the
knee to Baal or kissed his image. *'Lord," said the
apostles on one occasion, "are there few that be
saved?" And the Master made answer, as though
to turn away their inquiry, "Strive ye to enter in."
It is not for us to measure the city, but to be sure
that we have entered in."
"Run," said another angel to the prophet's angel-
34 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
guide, "speak to this young man {i.e., who had the
measuring line) saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited
as villages without walls, by reason of the multitude
of men and cattle therein." It was useless to mark
out boundaries, because the city was destined to ex-
ceed all ordinary dimensions, and become so great
that no walls would be capable of containing or keep-
ing pace with it. The mighty populations that would
congregate at that sacred center would overflow all
limitations, as London had radiated to every point of
the compass beyond the narrow enclosure of its
ancient walls. It is hard to imagine the time when
our own metropolis was contained between London
Wall and the Thames.
So shall it be with the saved. We have no right to
include in their ranks any who know not God, and
obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, who have
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. But apart from these, these will be a mul-
titude which no man can number, out of every na-
tion and of all tribes, and peoples, and tongues; as
stars in the midnight sky, or the sand-grains on the
seashore; enough to compensate for the travail of
the Redeemer's soul, and to satisfy the yearning love
of God. But here an objection might be raised. If
the Holy City was to be without walls, would it not
be open to every assailant ? What would there be to
afford a cover for the soldier, or hinder the advance
of the spoiler? Supposing that the enemy should
say, *T will go up to the land of unwalled villages ;
I will go to them that are at quiet, that dwell se-
MAN WITH THE MEASURING LINE. 35
curely, all of them dwelling without walls, and hav-
ing neither bars nor gates ; to take the spoil, and to
take the prey"( Ezek. xxxviii. ii)! How then
would Israel fare? No sooner is the suggestion
made than it is met. "I, saith the Lord, will be unto
her a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory
in the midst of her." The image is probably bor-
rowed from the camp-fires with which hunters sur-
round themselves at night to scare off the beasts of
prey. Imagine what that means ! Just as no pesti-
lence, and certainly no intruder, could break through
a cordon of flame, so the unseen but almighty pres-
ence of God would be a bulwark on which all the
powers of earth and hell would break to their own
undoing.
This is what every congregation of believers may
perpetually enjoy. They may be situated in the
midst of the ancient civilization of China, or the rude
heathenism of West Africa; no walls of wealth, or
worldly influence, or prestige may engird them ; but
they will be absolutely safe, because that cordon of
Divine and inviolable protection will enclose them on
every side. God will be to them all that walls can be,
and more. Indeed, it is better to dwell in an unde-
fended, un walled city; because we are made more
conscious of, and more dependent upon, the environ-
ing presence of the Eternal. Surely, the same
thought was in the apostle's mind when he gloried
and took pleasure in weaknesses, injuries, necessi-
ties, persecutions, distresses for Christ's sake; be-
cause, when he was weak, then he was strong.
36 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
Are you like an unwalled town, with nothing be-
tween you and the attacks of poverty, misfortune,
godless fellow- workmen, and false brethren? Do
not lose heart ! you may yet dwell within the devour-
ing fire of God's presence, and be surrounded by the
everlasting burnings of his protection (Isa. xxxiii.
14) . He hath declared : "No weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that
shall rise in judgment against thee thou shalt con-
demn." Such an one may well exclaim with David,
"I will not be afraid of ten thousands of the people
that have set themselves against me round about;
for Thou, Lord, art a Shield for me, my glory, and
the Lifter up of mine head." Remember to realize
God as between you and everything. Some put cir-
cumstances between them and God ; it is far wiser to
put God between oneself and circumstances. Yes,
we are as safe, stretched on the bare earth with no
covering but the fall of night, as when engirt by mas-
sive walls and palace doors. Nay, it is even a blessed
thing to be deprived of all that men are so prone to
magnify, that we may be thrown back absolutely on
God. We never discover how much He can be to the
soul until we have no other resource.
Three appeals follow: — One to the exiles (6, 7).
There were still vast numbers of Jews in Babylon,
and to these an earnest invitation was addressed :
"Ho, ho, flee from the land of the north, saith the
Lord; for I have spread you abroad as the four
winds of the heaven, saith the Lord! Ho, Zion,
escape thou that dwellest with the daughter of Baby-
MAN WITH THE MEASURING LINE. 37
Ion !" And this invitation was backed by two con-
siderations. On the one hand, safety is assured to
them if they return. God would be as quick to pro-
tect them as a man to raise his arm when injury is
threatened to his eye. On the other hand, they are
warned of the certain danger they incur by lingering
in Babylon. God was already shaking his hand over
that guilty city, as a signal to the nations she had
oppressed to gather to her overthrow, and to share
her spoils.
Ah, Christian soul, art thou still sojourning in
Babylon, conforming to the conventions of the
world, molded by the spirit of the age? Heed the
Divine summons to arise and depart. This cannot be
thy rest. And flatter not thyself that thou canst do
as the world does, and yet enjoy immunity from its
destruction. The conquering troops would make no
nice distinctions between Jews and Babylonians, but
would slay indiscriminately; and the recoil of nat-
ural law, violated by the professing Christian, will be
as sharp and inevitable as on those who do not as-
sume to be other than men of the world. Thou may-
est be a child of God ; but if this do not prevent thee
from behaving as a child of this world, it will not
prevent thee from suffering as the children of this
world suffer when inevitable retribution befalls.
How comforting it is to know that our souls are as
safe and dear to God as the apple of his eye! for
there is no part of the body so safely guarded as the
eye. The strong frontal bones, the brow or eyelash
to intercept the dust, the lid to protect from scorch-
38 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
ing glare, the sensitive tear-glands incessantly pour-
ing their crystal tides over its surface — what a
wealth of delicate machinery for its safety and
health ! We have all these in God. He is always on
the alert to warn, defend, and cleanse us. "I, the
Lord, do keep it; I will water it every moment!
Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."
An Appeal to Zion (lo). The daughter of Zion
might be a scattered remnant, settled amid the black-
ened ruins of the city ; but she might well sing and
rejoice, since God declared his willingness to come
and share her humble lot, helping her children
in their toils, and attracting many nations to
Himself. ''Lo, I come, and I will dwell in
the midst of thee, saith the Lord." She might
well dispense with walls and bulwarks, with
splendid buildings and holy fanes, since God
was in the midst of her. When the tabernacle
of God is with men, and He dwells with them, wip-
ing away all tears, there is neither mourning nor cry-
ing nor tears ; but the mouth is filled with laughter,
and the tongue with singing. Sometimes the Chris-
tian gets a vision of this. He realizes that since God
has come into the midst of his work, it is no longer
his, but God's ; he is only the agent and errand-lad.
God comforts and teaches the people; God restores
the ruins ; God builds the walls of Jerusalem ; God
does good in his good pleasure to Zion ; God attracts
the people, who join themselves not to a congrega-
tion, a church, or a minister, but to the Lord, and be-
MAN WITH THE MEASURING LINE. 39
come liis. He is not only a wall of fire round about,
but the glory in the midst.
An Appeal to all Flesh (13). In the bold imag-
ery of Scripture, God is sometimes represented as
sleeping (not that there is any weariness or indiffer-
ence in the Divine nature, for He that keeps us
neither slumbers nor sleeps), but to account for his
apparent apathy. Such times are always those in
which Zion herself slumbers in Sleepy Hollow.
There never can be any change in his power or ten-
derness; but the exertion of his energy is often ar-
rested through the indifference and unbelief of his
people.
When the Church awakes to repentance, humilia-
tion, and prayer, God is said to awake. The stir
among the restored exiles, in consequence of the
preaching of Zechariah and Haggai, is here de-
scribed his awakening — not, however, that He had
ever slept.
When God arouses Himself, let all flesh be silent
before Him. Let there be the silence of reverence,
of eager expectancy, of humble obedience, of wistful
desire. ''Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord : for
He is raised up out of His holy habitation." "My
soul, be silent unto God, for my expectation is from
Him."
V.
505bua tbe priest.
(Zechariah iii.)
We learn from the Book of Ezra (ii. 36-39) that
among the exiles who returned with Zerubbabel
from Babylon, were Joshua or Jeshua, and 4,289
priests. But they were in a sorry plight, their char-
acter is described by the prophet Malachi ; and it was
in sad contrast, as he suggests, to the original type of
the priesthood represented in Phinehas.
They despised God's name. Without scruple they
offered on his altar the lame, the blind, and the sick.
They said that the table of the Lord was polluted,
and the fruit thereof, even his meat, contemptible.
They did not hesitate to affirm that the routine of
Levitical service was a weariness ; and they snuffed
at it, and brought that which was taken by violence,
or the lame and the sick. They had turned aside out
of the way themselves, and had caused many to
stumble in the law. From these disgraceful charac-
teristics the prophet turned to paint, with a few bold
touches, the noble priest whose burning zeal for the
honor of God averted his wrath from the people, and
secured for himself and his seed after him the cov-
enant of an everlasting priesthood (Num. xxv.
10-13). 40
JOSHUA THE PRIEST. 41
*'My covenant was with him," the Spirit of God
declares, "of Hfe and peace; and I gave them to him
that he might fear : and he feared Me, and stood in
awe of my name. The law of truth was in his
mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his
lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness,
and did turn many away from iniquity" (Mai. ii.
5,6).
As a judgment on the priesthood, the whole body
had fallen under great reproach : "Therefore have I
also made you contemptible and base before all the
people, according as ye have not kept my ways"
(Mai. ii. 9).
There is every reason to believe, also, that the reg-
ulations for the maintenance of the priesthood by the
people had fallen into disuse ; so that they had neither
robes, nor vessels, nor the proper equipment required
for the stately ceremonial of the House of God. Un-
der such conditions there was great propriety in
Zechariah's vision of Joshua, the high priest, and his
fellows that sat before him : "And He showed me
Joshua the high priest, standing before the Angel of
the Lord. . . . Now Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments and stood before the Angel." There was
no mitre on his head, no insignia of exalted office on
his person; whilst his disheveled robes told the sad
story of neglect. The description at least reflected
the general conception entertained of the priesthood ;
and the question may even have been raised as to
whether there was any use in rebuilding the temple
while the officiating ministers were so unworthy of
their high calling.
42 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
There have been times in the past when the lead-
ers of various branches of the professing Church
might have been described in similar terms; when
the services of God's House have been performed in
a slovenly and perfunctory manner ; when the relig-
ious instincts of the people have been subordinated to
the sport, pleasure and material advantages, of their
religious teachers ; when services have been without
decorum, prayers without reverence, music without
taste, buildings in such repair as would not for a
moment be tolerated in our homes — everywhere dirt,
cobwebs, neglect. Such a condition of things may
still be described as the robing of the priestly caste
in filthy garments.
But is there not another and deeper meaning in
these words? Recall the Angel's words: ''Hear
now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows
that sit before thee; for they are men which are a
sign." May not this mean that they represent all
who have been made priests unto God, called "to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by
Jesus Christ"? (i Peter ii. 5). Are there not times
in our lives when we feel unfit to render that sacred
service? It may be at the hour of evening prayer,
when the household is assembling ; but we hesitate to
open the sacred Word, or engage in prayer, because
something has gone amiss during the preceding
hours, which has soiled the heart and ruffled the in-
ward peace. It may be, as we take our wonted seat
in the House of God on the morning of God's day,
and there flashes across us the memory of habits in-
JOSHUA THE PRIEST. 43
dulged, practices sanctioned, methods of making
money pursued, which are unworthy of our Chris-
tian profession; and again our hearts condemn us.
Or, as we ascend the pulpit, take our class, mingle
with our fellow-workers, we remember outbursts of
irritability, proud and vainglorious thoughts, words
and deeds of senseless folly; and we feel the incon-
gruity of standing up as God's messengers between
the living and the dead. At all such times we are,
like Joshua, clothed in filthy garments.
The sense of shame becomes more acute when we
stand before the Angel of the Lord. ''He showed me
Joshua, the high priest, standing before the Angel of
the Lord." In the world's twilight much may pass
muster which, in the light of that sweet, pure face,
must be utterly condemned. Garments which served
us well enough in the short, dark winter days are
laid aside when spring arrives ; they will not bear the
searching scrutiny of the light. In the ordinary life
of our homes, we are less particular of our attire
than when, on some special occasion, we have to un-
dergo the inspection of stranger eyes. Thus we are
prone to compare ourselves with ourselves, or with
others, and to argue that the habit of our soul is not
specially defiled. Alas ! we reason thus in the dark.
But when the white light of the throne of God breaks
on us, we cry with Job: 'Tf I wash myself with
snow-water, and make my hands never so clean, yet
wilt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own
clothes shall abhor me."
Joshua must have felt much as Isaiah did, when he
44 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
was passing through the supreme crisis of his Hfe.
Prophet though he were, admired and beloved by the
good, hated by the bad, when he beheld the Lord sit-
ting on his high and exalted throne, the cry of soul-
anguish was extorted from him : "Woe is me, for I
am undone." He was probably the last man in Israel
who would have been deemed capable of such a con-
fession ; yet he was the first to make it. The greatest
saints are they who, like Augustine, write confes-
sions. The larger the sphere of light, the wider the
circumference of darkness. The more we know of
God, the more we loathe ourselves and repent.
What is to be done under such circumstances?
Renounce our priesthood? Disclaim its God-given
functions ? No : remain standing before the Angel.
He knows all — we need not shrink from his search-
ing eyes — but He loves infinitely. He has power to
make our iniquity pass from us, and clothe us with
change of raiment — that white linen which is the
righteousness of saints.
It is at such moments, however, that our great
adversary puts forth his worst insinuations. "Satan
standing at his right hand to be his adversary."
Since he was cast out of his first estate, he has been
'the antagonist of God, the hater of good, and the
accuser of the brethren. He discovers the weak
spots in character, and thrusts at them; the secret
defects of the saints, and proclaims them upon the
housetops; the least symptom of disloyalty, incon-
stancy, and mixture of motive, and flaunts it before
God's angels. He is keen as steel, and cruel as hell
JOSHUA THE PRIEST. 45
Ah, it is awful to think with w^hat implacability he
rages against us !
When we pray, he is quick to detect the wandering
thought, the mechanical repetition of well-worn
phrases, the flagging fervor. With a sneer, he says,
''Dost thou hear that? Is not this the voice of one
whom Thou hast redeemed?"
When we work for God, he is keen to notice our
desire to dazzle our fellows, to secure name and
fame, to use the cross as a ladder for our own exalta-
tion instead of our Master's. ''Is this," he hisses,
"the kind of service which thy chosen servants offer
Thee?"
When we approach the Lord's table, and our
hearts are cold in the very presence of that mystery
of Love, he claps his hands in glee, and takes care to
taunt the Bridegroom with the irresponsiveness and
coolness of the Bride. And Christ suffers much. He
had noticed all this; but who cares to be accosted
with that which is already gnawing at your heart ?
And when, like Job, we do bear trial patiently and
nobly, the great adversary suggests that we do it
from a selfish motive — "Doth Job serve God for
naught?"
Satan cannot reach the Son of God now, save
through the members of his Body ; but he misses no
opportunity of thrusting at Him, as he accuses them.
Let lis now turn to notice the intervention and an-
swer of the Angel of the Covenant. It is spon-
taneous and unsought. Before Joshua had time to
say, "Shelter me," his faithful Friend and Advocate
46 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
had cast around him the assurance of His Protection,
and had silenced the adversary. The Lord rebuke
thee, O Satan. As the Aaronic Priest, He died ; but,
as the Melchizedek Priest, He ever hves to make in-
tercession on our behalf; and as the torpedoes of the
enemy are launched against us, He catches them in
the net of his Intercession, and makes them power-
less to hurt. Before we call, He answers. Before
we realize the strong and cunning charges accumu-
lated against us. He has rebutted them. In the same
breath in which the Master told Peter that Satan had
sought to sift him as wheat. He told him that He had
prayed for him.
It is founded on electing grace. For He says:
"The Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee."
Before ever He chose her. He must have foreseen all
that she would become, her backslidings and re-
bellions, her filthy garments, her wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores; but, notwithstanding all. He
set His heart upon her. Surely, then. He would not
abandon her because of anything that her adversary
might rake up to her discredit. He knew the worst
about her before He chose her as His own ; nothing
could happen that had not been well considered in the
white light of eternity. Satan could allege nothing
which the Advocate had not weighed in the balances
of his Divine prescience. He had realized the very
worst before making his final choice.
These are foundation thoughts, on which we rest
the structure of our hopes. When we are most
agonized at the memory of recent failure, most dis-
JOSHUA THE PRIEST. 47
tressed as we weigh and consider the cruelty and
meanness of our selfish actions, most ashamed for
the vileness and inveteracy of our impure and unholy
passions, we can only turn to those passages which
assure us that we were chosen in Christ before the
foundation of the world, and that he had predes-
tinated those whom he foreknew. For God to reject
us now would be a reflection on His ominpotence.
Yes, thou great adversary, thou canst not tell our
Lord worse things about us than He knows; and
notwithstanding all, He loves, and will love.
Moreover, it has already done too much to go
hack. The point of the metaphor which follows is
very reassuring. "Is not this a brand plucked out of
the fire?" You have been writing all the morning
at your desk, answering letters, assorting papers and
manuscripts, destroying much that there was no need
to keep. After two or three hours of work, there is
a heap of papers which you wish to destroy, and you
place them in your stove or fireplace, the fire kindles
on them, and they begin to blaze. Suddenly, to your
dismay, you remember that there was a cheque or
note among them, or a letter with an address, or a
paper which has cost you hours of work. As quick
as thought you rush to the kindling flames, and
snatch away the paper, and attempt to stay the gnaw-
ing edge of flame. But what an appearance the
paper suggests ! It is yellow with smoke, charred
and brittle round the edges, scorched and hot, here
and there are gaps — it is a brand plucked out of the
fire. Would you have snatched it out if you had not
48 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
valued it ? And, after you have taken such pains to
rescue it, is it Hkely that you will thrust it back to
destruction? And v^ould Jehovah have snatched
Israel out of Babylon, and expended so much time
and care over her, if at the end He meant to destroy
her ? The fact of his having done so much, not only
proved his love, but implied its continuance.
What depths of consolation are here ! As v^e look
back on our lives, we become aware of the narrow-
ness of our escape from dangers which overwhelmed
others. We have been involved in companionships
and practices which have ruined others irretrievably ;
but somehow, though we are charred and blackened,
we have escaped the ultimate results. We have been
plucked out of the burning. What can we infer
from so gracious an interposition, except that we
have been preserved for some high and useful pur-
pose; and that God will yet make use of us for His
kingdom and glory, in spite of all that Satan may
say or do on the other side — and this because He
sees, what Satan cannot see, the bitterness of our re-
pentance, the poignancy of our grief, and the sincere
desire of our hearts yet to serve Him, before we go
hence.
Manoah's wife was perfectly justified in meeting
the fears of her timorous husband by saying, "If the
Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have told
us such things as these." All the past is an argument
for faith. God resembles an investor who has sunk
so much in an undertaking that, though it has hith-
erto proved unprofitable, he dare not abandon it; he
JOSHUA THE PRIEST, 49
is bound to go on until the scale turns, and it begins
to pay — then he will be abundantly recouped. Has
God snatched you from destruction, from the jaws
of the lion, and the mouth of hell ? It is a proof that
He will perfect what concerneth you. Let Satan try
his worst, God cannot deny Himself. He does not
say, Yea, yea; nay, nay. ''Whom He called, them
He also justified ; and whom He justified, them He
also glorified. What then shall we say to these
things ? If God be for us, who can be against us !"
VI.
^be Can2>Iedtick.
(Zechariah iv.)
On their return from Babylon the Jews were con-
fronted with immense difficulties arising from the
opposition of their neighbors, their want of re-
sources, and the incompetence of their leaders. The
last was probably their most serious difficulty.
Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and Zerub-
babel had faltered in his attempt to rear the Temple.
His hands had laid the foundation, but, after a brief
effort, they had fallen paralyzed by his side. Royal
blood was in his veins, but he sadly lacked the energy
and faith of the princes of his line. The rebuilding
of the Temple had been greatly hindered, and for
some time had been entirely suspended; and, all
around, the heaped-up ruins and unused materials
showed how much needed to be done. The suspicion
may have suggested itself, and spread from lip to lip,
that there could be no improvement, no hope of ad-
vance, while Zerubbabel was to lead.
These difficulties and forebodings rose like a
mountain range between the returned exiles and the
accomplishment of their purpose. Not more abso-
lutely do the Himalayas, which seem like a vision of
50
THE CANDLESTICK. 51
clouds to dwellers on the plains of India, wall out
invasions and bar the northern route, than did these
tremendous obstacles rear themselves before the re-
turned remnant.
It was at this juncture, and to reassure them, that
the Angel that talked with Zechariah came again,
and waked him, as a man that is wakened out of his
sleep. He did not minimize the greatness of the dis-
couragements, but he brought a message of hope.
Even though Zerubbabel might lack the essentials of
a great leader, yet the success of their undertaking
did not depend upon him, but on the Divine power,
which was working through him to achieve the Di-
vine purpose. "Then he answered and spake unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerub-
babel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by
my spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. Who art thou, O
great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt be-
come a plain : and He shall bring forth the headstone
with shoutings of Grace, Grace unto it."
In the most express and unmistakable terms
Zechariah was further assured that God would cer-
tainly fulfill his word through this scion of David's
house. ''Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto
me, saying. The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the
foundations of this house ; his hands shall also finish
it." With what new pleasure the prophet would
contemplate the state of the Temple area; and, the
day of small things, as it undoubtedly was. With
what new fortitude he would bear the adverse criti-
cisms of the old men who had seen the glory of the
52 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
former house, and were loth to believe that anything
could come of beginnings so feeble and delayed ! He
could already see the Prince of Judah, standing in
the sunny air, plummet and trowel in hand, fixing
the capstone in its place, amid the enthusiastic shouts
of the people. Better than all, he could see the eyes
of God, seven in number, because of their perfection,
which run to and fro throughout the whole earth, re-
joicing as they beheld the plummet in his hand. We
pause here for a moment to absorb the sweetness of
the suggestion, that God delights in his people's
work for Him, and joins his congratulations with
theirs, when the crown is placed on their labors.
In order to make God's meaning clearer, the
prophet was granted the vision of the candlestick
(lamp-stand), the gist of which was that the wick,
though necessary to the light, played a very incon-
siderable part in its production. It had no illum-
inating power; it could only smoke, and char, and
smoulder. At the best, it could only be a medium
between the oil in the cistern and the fire that burned
on its serried edge. Thus Zerubbabel might be weak
and flexible as a wick, but none of his deficiencies
could hinder him finishing the work to which he had
been called, if only his spirit was kindled with the
Divine fire, and fed continually by the gracious in-
fluences of the Holy Spirit.
The candlestick, which Zechariah beheld in pro-
phetic ecstacy, was evidently fashioned on the model
of that in the Temple, the shape of which is still pre-
served to us on the Arch of Titus. At the top there
THE CANDLESTICK. 53
was a large bowl or cistern filled with the golden oil,
in which the wicks of the lamps were dipped, and
which stole up their texture to burn for the light of
all that were in the house. The branches radiated
from a central stem to the seven lamps. According
to the Revised Version, there v/ere seven pipes to
each lamp, and therefore forty-nine in all. Nor was
this all. On either side of this massive candlestick
stood an olive-tree, from the heart of which, by a
golden pipe, the oil was continually being poured
into the reservoir; so that even though it might be
limited in its containing power, there could be no
failure in its ability to meet the incessant demands of
its lamps.
So far as the Jews were concerned, the meaning of
the vision was obvious. They were represented in
the candlestick, of which the many lamps and the
precious metal of its composition set forth their per-
fection and preciousness in the thought of God.
Their function was to shed the light of his knowl-
edge on the world, as it lay under the power of dark-
ness; while, to aid them in fulfilling this mission
Divine supplies would be forthcoming from a celes-
tial and living source, and brought to them through
the golden pipes, of which one represented Joshua
the priest, and the other Zerubbabel the prince.
These men, therefore, were but mediums for Divine
communications. Their sufficiency was not of them-
selves, but of God. The mission of Israel would be
realized not by them, but by the Spirit of God
through them. They might seem altogether helpless
54 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
and inadequate ; but a living fountain of oil was pre-
pared to furnish them with inexhaustible supplies.
For us, too, this vision is full of teaching, encour-
agement, and admonition, to which we would do
well if we pay heed.
The first chapter of the Book of Revelation, which
compares the work of the Church during the present
age to seven light-bringing candlesticks, suggests
the application of this vision of Zechariah's to our-
selves. As yet dawn has not broken; darkness en-
velops the earth, and gross darkness the peoples.
But God has called his people, in the meanwhile, to
"shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word
of life." Let us recognize the important work to
which God has called us; and whether it be as the
household candle, the street lamp, or the gleam of the
lighthouse, let us beware of hiding our light under
a bushel, lest men stumble to their destruction. The
lights of a dark night seldom receive their meed of
notice or gratitude; but how could we do without
them ? And though the children of this world rarely
recognize their indebtedness to the Christian Church,
they would be in a sorry plight if it were not for its
three-fold beam of faith, hope, and love.
The golden bowl filled with oil is an eloquent sym-
bol of the relationship of our Redeemer to his people.
"It hath pleased the Father that in Him should all
fullness dwell." The fullness of the Holy Spirit is
always at high-water mark within his glorious na-
ture. It is not possible to imagine any aspect of
Holy Ghost fullness which is not embraced and in-
THE CANDLESTICK. 55
eluded in our glorious Lord ; and there is no quality
needed for the outshining of Christian character
which is not richly stored in Him ; He is "the fullness
of the God-head bodily." His the spirit of wisdom
and understanding; his the spirit of counsel and
might ; his the spirit of understanding and of the fear
of the Lord ; and He "is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."
Press this thought to your heart, child of God, and
dwell on it — that in Christ are hidden all the treas-
ures of wisdom and knowledge; He is the ocean-
basin of God's infinite resources, that we may forever
draw on his stores, and be replenished from his full-
ness with grace upon grace.
It was explained to Zechariah that the olive trees
on either side of the candlestick were the two sons of
oil that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. If, in
its primary significance, this figure indicated the
royal and priestly elements of the Jewish national
life, in our case it signifies the royal priesthood of
our Lord and of us His people. He is a Priest upon
His throne. He is a Priest for ever after the order of
Melchizedek, who was King of Salem as well as
Priest of the Most High God. Had He been only
our Aaron, He would have made peace between God
and us by the shedding of blood, and have gone into
the Holy of Holies to intercede ; but the veil would
have fallen intact behind Him, and He would have
had no power to introduce us into the Most Holy
Place, and maintain us there. He would not have
been able to communicate a royal and victorious life.
56 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
which defies the power of sin, and goes forth to con-
quer in eternal vigor and beauty. Christ is King as
well as Priest ; and therefore He not only brings us
nigh to God, but makes us sit with Him in the
heavenlies of his eternal supremacy.
Yes, friend, we may be but as wicks, with no pith
or power of our own, smoking, charring, burning
out ; unnoticed amid the flame we yield ; unrewarded
and unthanked; pieces of coarse tow. But let us
keep saturated in the fullness that is in Christ Jesus,
let us abide in Him, let us dip deep into the well of
His supplies; so shall the quality of His glorious
nature yield itself up through us to the illumination
of men.
It is easy to see what comfort this vision brought
to the handful of exiles amid those blackened ruins.
It seemed as though mountain ranges of difficulty
stood between them and the accomplishment of their
great undertaking. But now they learned that at the
best they were only the channels and instruments;
and that God was prepared to accomplish the results
they sought. It was not to be by their might, nor
power, but by his Spirit, pouring into and through
them with inexhaustible fullness, as the oil poured
into and through the golden pipes from the two olive
trees.
We are often menaced by apparently insurmount-
able difficulties, which extort from us the groan, "O
great mountain !" At other times we are oppressed
with a sense of our impotence, and of the weight
and weariness of life. How can we be always good ?
THE CANDLESTICK. 57
How obey the heavenly vision ? How last ? We are
told that Daniel continued unto the first year of
Cyrus. Ah, this patient endurance and continuance
in well-doing! If we are to live for twenty, thirty,
or fifty years from now, in a world in which the
shocks, perils, and demands will certainly not dimin-
ish as the coming of the Bridegroom draws nigh,
shall we be able to endure to the end ? Will not the
lamp expire before the gust which shall precede the
gray dawn of Advent? The, outward man decays;
will the inward man be always renewed ?
These thoughts attracted me to a conversation
with the wick of my lamp. For long it had served
my purpose, silently ministering as I read beside it.
I felt ashamed that I had not before noticed its unob-
trusive ministry. I said to the wick : —
"For the service of many months I thank thee."
"What have I done for thee?"
"Hast thou not given light upon my page?"
"Indeed, no; I have no light to give, in proof
whereof take me from my bath of oil, and see how
quickly I expire. Thou wilt soon turn from me, as a
piece of smoking tow. It is not I that burn, but the
oil with which my texture is saturated. It is this
that lights thee. As for me, I simply mediate be-
tween the oil in the cistern and the fire on my edge.
See this blackened edge. It slowly decays, but the
light continually burns."
"Dost thou never fear becoming exhausted ? See
how many inches of coil remain ! Wilt thou be able
58 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
to give light till every inch of this is slowly charred
and cut away?''
"1 have no fear so long as the supply of oil does
not fail, if only some kindly hand will remove, from
time to time, the charred margin, trimming me, and
exposing a fresh edge to the flame. This is my two-
fold need : oil and trimming. Give me these, and I
shall burn to the end."
'1 thank thee, gentle teacher," I said, as I turned
away; ''thou hast greatly encouraged me. I, too,
shall endure, so long as I abide in Him, in whom
God has stored the measureless residue of the Spirit ;
and so long also as the Divine hand, with delicate
thoughtfulness, uses the golden snuffers, removing
the debris and decay, pruning that I may bear fruit ;
piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit,
that I may enter into his rest."
Some among us appear to think that the soul can
accumulate a stock of grace, in a sacrament, a con-
vention, or a night of prayer. But this is at variance
with the teaching of the wick. It accumulates noth-
ing. It has no stores. From hour to hour it is al-
ways on the edge of bankruptcy, but always supplied.
So should we live — at every moment giving all we
have, but never doubting about the supplies of the
future. Bear pain for one moment at a time ; there
is patience enough in Jesus for the next moment.
Do your Christian work with as much energy as
though each service were your last. You cannot
exhaust God; and your work is to be, not in your
might or power, but by his Spirit.
THE CANDLESTICK. 59
Moment by moment I'm kept in his love;
Moment by moment, I've life from above;
Looking to Jesus ! till glory doth shine, .
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.
There is also a warning for us all implied in this
vision, to wliich Vv^e must give heed. We must very
carefully abide in Christ, that He may abide in us;
always recognizing his royalty, which calls for
obedience ; always resting upon his priesthood, which
reconciles us to God. In obedience and faith the
bond of fellowship is perpetually maintained and
strengthened. Every time we do as our Prince bids,
though it contradicts the strongest desires of our
nature ; every time we resort to our Priest — there is
an accentuation of that fellowship which draws his
nature into ours.
Forgive me if I return to this thought again and
again. It has become so precious an emblem of my
relationship with my Lord, to think of the union be-
tween the wick and the limitless supplies of the olive
tree. Hour after hour the oil climbs up the wick to
the flame, and thus insensibly the grace of the risen
Lord passes through the medium of our faith into
the radiant beauty of a life on fire with God. O fire
of God, thou shalt burn on us for evermore ; and our
spirits shall be thy candles, because we have learned
to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the
inner man, and Christ dwells in our hearts by faith.
We must expect that Christ will use his golden
snuffers. Let us not flinch from them. When He
seems sacrificing some vital, necessary part of our
6o THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
nature, He is only cutting away the black, charred,
burnt-out debris. Trust Him. That piece which He
has cut away was smoking badly, and spoiling the
testimony of the rest. It was better for it to come
off ; but He thinks so much of this work, that He will
use only golden snuffers. Can you not trust the
hand that holds them? It bears the nail-print of
Calvary.
Beware, also, that nothing chokes the golden pipes
of obedience to his kindliness, and trust in his priest-
hood ; else the entrance of the golden oil will be ar-
rested. They may soon become stopped by neglect,
inattention, or disuse.
Do not weary of the slow advance of your life to
Christian perfection. This is the day of small
things ; of the foundation-trench rather than the top-
stone; of the testing of line and plummet, rather
than of shoutings of "Grace, grace unto it." But be
of good cheer ; the seven eyes of the Lord are upon
the worker and the work. They run to and fro
throughout the whole earth ; but they return to rest
in loving interest on the progress of His work. He
will perfect that which concerneth you; He cannot
forsake the work of His own hands.
Grace all the work shall crown
Through everlasting days;
It lays in Heaven the topmost stone.
And well deserves the praise.
VII.
<5ofn9 3Foctb.
(Zechariah v., vi., 1-8.)
There is a clear connection between the three next
visions, furnished by the words, Going forth. *'The
curse goes forth over the face of the whole land"
(3) ; 'The ephah goeth forth" (6) ; "The chariots
go forth" (vi. 1-5.) It is as though Zechariah were
permitted to stand in the center of things, where God
is, and was able to see the successive issues of the
Divine Providence in respect of the moral govern-
ment of his people and the world.
I. The Vision of the Flying Roll. — The
prophet beheld in vision a huge sheet of paper, or
dressed skin, prepared for writing, slowly floating
in mid-heaven. It seemed to be hovering, and pre-
pared to pounce, as a bird of prey may often be seen
on the point of settling over a plowed field. Its
considerable extent, thirty feet by fifteen — the di-
mensions of the temple porch — was covered on each
side by the solemn curses of the law; on this, by
those that condemn the thief ; on that, by those con-
demning the false swearer.
We have already learned that God had returned to
61
62 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
Jerusalem, prepared to become a wall of fire round
about, and its glory in the midst ; the temple should
be rebuilt, and the priesthood reconstituted ; but the
people must be made to understand what a solemn
thing it was to have God in such near proximity. If
He was ready to defend them against their foes. He
was also determined to purge out from among them
those who transgressed His holy law.
It is clear that this young community was spe-
cially cursed by these twin sins. Men were fraudu-
lent and mendacious. They got the better of their
customers if they had the chance ; and then, with un-
blushing effrontery, lied to conceal their frauds.
These are always the sins of a mercantile commun-
ity; and they are as prevalent in London and New
York, in Bombay and Melbourne, as ever they were
in the newly-restored Jerusalem. But God is al-
ways pledged to deal with them, in the interests of
society itself, which must be undermined if they be
allowed to prevail unchecked. Over the great com-
mercial centers of the world — yes, and over the
great emporiums of trade — that roll still hangs, and
the curse of God threatens to fall.
The effect of the curse is told in graphic symbol-
ism. It seemed after a time to settle down on cer-
tain houses. They may have been resepectable
houses, the houses of men that were held in reverent
repute, houses which were often alight with the lamps
of high festival; but by the settling down of that
roll, the master of such and such a house v/as indi-
cated as being either a thief or a liar. 'T will cause it
GOING FORTH. 63
to go forth, saith the Lord of Hosts, and it shall enter
into the house of the thief, and into the house of him
that sweareth falsely by tny name."
That, however, was not the end, either of the
vision or of those divine dealings which the vision
describes. The interpreting angel goes on to say:
"It shall abide in the midst of his house, and shall
consume it, with the timber thereof, and the stones
thereof." It was as though, from the moment that
the curse settled down, the whole fabric of the house
commenced to rot; and the owner might fairly
adopt the words of Leviticus: 'There seemeth to
me to be, as it were, a plague in the house."
How terribly those words have been fulfilled in
the case of people and families we have known ! It
has seemed as though there were a plague in the
house. The fortune which had been accumulated
with such toil has crumbled ; the children turned out
sources of heart-rending grief ; the reputation of the
father has become irretrievably tarnished. "There
is a plague spread in the house; it is a fretting
leprosy, it is unclean." No man can stand against
that curse. It confronts him everywhere. It
touches his most substantial effects, and they pul-
verize, as furniture eaten through by white ants. It
is as though he were condemned to hear, like an-
other Job, the voices of successive messengers, an-
nouncing that they only are left to tell the story of
irremediable disaster. Timber and stones, however
carved and chiseled, crumble to ash and dust ! How
awfully realistic ! How terribly true !
64 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
11. The Vision of the Ephah. — Again the
prophet's eyes were directed by the angel that spoke
with him toward mid-heaven, and he saw a yet
more graphic symbol. An ephah was seen careering
through the air. '1 said, What is it? And he said,
This is the ephah that goeth forth. He said, more-
over, This is their resemblance in all the land." As
much as to say that the Jews were known through-
out the world of that time as traders, who were con-
stantly handing the Hebrew dry measure, contain-
ing about a bushel, or seven-and-a-half gallons.
Presently the cover was lifted off, and a woman
was seen sitting in the midst of the ephah. "And he
said, "This is Wickedness; and he cast her down
into the midst of the ephah : and he cast the weight
of lead upon the mouth thereof." Does not this
clearly mean that the commercial life of these Jew-
ish traders was deeply saturated with wicked prac-
tices, and that there was a kind of alliance between
them and the impalpable spirit of Wickedness, as
illustrated by this personification of evil ?
How often when men slam to the doors of their
safes, shut their ledgers, and lock their counting-
houses, they seem to place the leaden weight on the
top of the ephah containing wickedness ! They wish
to hide it from the eyes of their nearest and dearest.
They would like to hide it from the face of God
Himself.
It is at this juncture, however, that an entirely
new turn is given to this vision. "Then lifted I up
mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there came forth
GOING FORTH. 65
two women, and the wind was in their wings; now
they had wings hke the wihgs of a stork : and they
lifted up the ephah between the earth and the
heaven." The stork has long and wide wings. It is
also a migratory bird. It would have no difficulty
in covering the distance between Jerusalem and
Babylon. And, therefore, storks' wings are attrib-
uted to these two women. As two anointed ones
stand by the Lord as his ministers, so these two
women execute his purposes in removing wicked-
ness, which answers to the mystery of iniquity, of
which the apostle speaks.
"Then said I to the angel that talked with me,
Whither do these bear the ephah ? And he said unto
me, To build her an house in the land of Shinar;
and when it is prepared, she shall be set there in her
own place." Babylon was far away, the seat of
apostasy from God and demon-worship. It was
meet that Wickedness should be borne thither. But
how great the deliverance for the chosen land !
What comfort is here! Wickedness may be
strongly entrenched ; but she shall be removed, when
once God arises on the behalf of his people. Do you
sigh and cry against it? Do you desire that some
terrible form of it, which has cursed your life too
long, and alienated the Divine favor, should be elim-
inated? Be encouraged by that vision! Lift up
your eyes, and see the swift stork-like wings, with
the favoring breeze bearing them forward as they
speed to perform God's behest. If only you are
willing, God will certainly free and deliver you.
66 TUB PROPHET OF HOPE.
Thousands have experienced this deliverance
from certain forms of besetting sin, which have
dropped off as the viper from Paul's hand, as they
have received the more perfect indwelling of the
Holy Ghost. Not long after his conversion, the
saintly Fletcher passed into this experience, trod sin
under his feet, and proclaimed that we must not be
content till we have been delivered from the power of
sin, through the indwelling of the Divine Spirit.
And Wesley says of Halyburton : "This great serv-
ant of God sometimes fell back, from the glorious
liberty he had received, into the spirit of fear, and
sin, and bondage. But why? Because he did not
abide in Christ; because he did not cleave to Him
with all his heart; because he grieved the Holy
Spirit by whom freedom from sin is rendered the
common privilege of all." From which we infer
that Wesley held and taught, that we are delivered
from the power of sin and darkness, just in so far as
we abide in Him who is the light of life. Abide in
Him, and you, too, shall see wickedness borne out
of the practical experience of your life.
III. The Vision of the Chariots. — This is a
vision of Protection and Deliverance. Four char-
iots are seen issuing from the mountains that were
round about Jerusalem. In each case the color of
the horses represented the commission that their
hurrying drivers bore to the different nations, which,
before that time, had ravaged the Jewish people.
'Then I answered and said unto the angel that
GOING FORTH. ^7
talked with me: What are these, my lord? And
the angel answered and sai'd unto me: These are
the four spirits of Heaven, which go forth from
standing before the Lord of all the earth."
Against the north country, where Babylon lay,
two chariots went forth; whereof the black horses
represented defeat and despair, while the white
stood for the victorious successes of some conquer-
ing people, before whom Babylon would be laid low
in the dust — a prediction which was probably ful-
filled in the rise of the third great world-wide king-
dom of Greece, under Alexander the Great.
The grizzled, or piebald, went forth toward the
south country, and represent the mixed experiences
— partly of disaster, and partly of prosperity —
which would befall Egypt, on the southern frontier
of the Holy Land. For the v/ord bay, the margin
suggests the possible alternative strong; and this is
probably the right rendering. So this one chariot
seems to have been allocated to the work of going to
and fro in the earth, on a general mission of patrol
and defense. If Satan goes to and fro, seeking
whom he may injure, the chariots of God go to and
fro, to bring succor and deliverance to the saints.
How comforting this vision was and is! It
clearly teaches that, when sin is put away, as be-
tween God and his people. He constitutes Himself
their gracious Keeper: no weapon that is turned
against them prospers, and every tongue that rises
in judgment against them is condemned. Woe be
68 THE PROPHET OP HOPE.
to their enemies! God's Spirit is, in strong meta-
phor, described as being quieted by their overthrovv^ ;
whilst his chosen dwell always within the precincts
of his Almighty guardianship. 'They shall dwell
securely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods."
VIII.
Cbriet— ipr(e6t anD *lking.
(Zechariah vi., 9-15.)
At this point an interesting episode breaks in on
this wonderful series of visions. From far-off
Babylon, where the majority of the Jewish nation
was still residing, a deputation of three Jews came
to Jerusalem, bringing a present of gold and silver.
This donation was evidently intended to aid the
little band of returned exiles in their heroic work.
Alas, it is still the way in which too many Christians
do the work of God! They shrink from personal
service; but are quite ready, in lieu of it, to give a
subscription in aid of those who are sacrificing ease
and emolument that they may give priceless per-
sonal service.
The men who brought the gift were Heldai
(called Helem in verse 14), Tobijah, and Jedaiah,
and they were received and entertained by Josiah, or
Hen, the son of Zephaniah.
Zechariah was directed to take the gold and sil-
ver, and make a crown (or crowns). These, on
some public occasion, and with, perhaps, some little
ceremony, were placed on the fair mitre, which, we
have already seen, had been set on the high priest's
head. 69
70 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
It was a much more significant act than this bare
recital of it suggests. These two offices, the sacer-
dotal and the regal, had been always kept jealously
apart in Israel; and when King Uzziah had at-
tempted to burn incense upon the altar of incense,
the altercation which ensued in the holy place be-
tween himself and the priests, countersigned as their
horror and indignation were by the rising of the
brand of leprosy on his forehead, proved how
stringent that separation was. But here the divinely
commissioned prophet, by an unmistakable symbolic
act, combined the two offices in the same individual.
And, using a well-understood name for the Messiah,
went on to say : "Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts,
saying: Behold, the Man whose name is The
Branch. He shall grow up out of his place (i.e.,
shall emerge from the obscurity of his early begin-
nings), and He shall build the Temiple of the Lord;
and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule
upon his throne; and He shall be a priest upon his
throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between
them both" (i.e., between these two offices, the
priestly and the regal).
L Notice this Significant Designation of
THE Lord Jesus — 'The Branch." The family of
David was like a decayed tree, the stump of which
alone remains; but from so lowly and unlikely an
origin, a shoot or scion would emanate, which
would again become a noble forest tree, and per-
petuate the memory and influence of the royal line.
This imagery is familiar to more than one of the
CHRIST— PRIEST AND KING. 71
prophets, and, in every case* can only be applied to
"Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abra-
ham" (Matt. i. i). 'There shall come forth," says
Isaiah, "a. shoot out of the stock of Jesse; and a
Branch out of his roots shall bear fruit, and the
Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him. In that day
shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and
glorious." "Behold" — they are the words of Jere-
miah— "the days come, saith the Lord, that I will
raise imto David a righteous Branch, and He shall
reign as King." It is suggested that, in the song of
Zecharias, so full of the glad realization of the ful-
filled past, Branch may be substituted for Dayspring,
and he may, therefore, have quoted this very phrase
and said, "The Branch from on high hath visited
us" (Lukei. 78).
Certainly David's race had reached a low ebb
when Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the city of
Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David which is
called Bethlehem, to be enrolled with Mary his
espoused wife, because they were of the house and
lineage of David. There was no room for them in
the village inn ; the new-born babe was wrapped in
swaddling clothes and laid in a manger; and the
couple were so straitened for means that they could
not afford to purchase two young pigeons, the gift
of the poor, for the mother's thank-offering in the
Temple. From that stock, however, the scion has
grown into a noble tree, whose branches reach out to
the ends of the earth, and whose fruit gives life and
blessing to all mankind.
72 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
Through a branch the fullness of the Root is car-
ried to the fruit, which swells in ruddy beauty on its
extremity, and presently falls into the hand of the
wayfarer; so Jesus is the blessed channel of com-
munication between the fullness of God, and the
thirsty wastes of human need. We sit under his
shadow with great delight, and his fruit is sweet to
our taste.
II. The Combination in Christ of the
Priestly and Kingly Offices. — "He shall be a
priest upon his throne." Man's nature demands a
Priest. Conscious of sin and defilement, he rears
an altar wherever he pitches his tent ; and, selecting
one of his fellows, he separates him from the or-
dinary duties of life, and bids him stand as mediator
and priest between God and himself. It was thus
that Micah addressed the young man, the Levite of
Bethlehem- Judah, when he said, ''Dwell with me,
and be unto me a father and priest ; and I will give
thee ten pieces of silver by the year, and thine ap-
parel, and thy victuals."
If an argument were needed to prove the unity of
the human family, it surely would be suggested by
the universal distribution of temples and altars over
the world, as though men were everywhere alike in
this — that they know themselves to be sinful, and
desire to find some way of propitiating and ap-
proaching the Almighty.
In the Levitical system, and, above all, in Jesus
Christ, God has met this universal craving of the
human heart. Indeed, no religion is destined to tmi-
CHRIST— PRIEST AND KING. 73
versal supremacy that does n®t provide for the con-
sciousness of guilt, and reveal a merciful and faith-
ful priest, appointed in things pertaining to God,
that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins,
and bear gently with the ignorant and erring.
Man also requires a king. God had designed to
meet this need by Himself by being Israel's King,
that they should not be "like other nations," but a
peculiar people unto Him. They were following
natural promptings, when the Israelites came to
Samuel and said: "We will have a king over us,
that we also may be like the other nations, and that
our king may judge us, and go out before us, and
fight our battles." Man needs a leader — one whom
he may admire and obey; from whom he may re-
ceive indisputable commands ; and in whom his fac-
ulty of veneration may find satisfaction. The days
when there was no king in Israel, and every man did
what was right in his own eyes, were far from being
either contented or prosperous.
How remarkable it is that the kingship of Jesus
should have been so accentuated in his trial. It was
the center around which the storm raged. Pilate
challenged his claims: "Art Thou a king, then?"
and Jesus asseverated them: "Thou sayest that I
am — a king." The faded purple robe flung over his
shoulders, the reed in his hand, the mocking bend-
ing of the knee, the crowd of thorns on his brow,
were but the grotesque and heartless mockery of his
claims. And when his sacred body was affixed to
the cross, the title on the headpiece, written in the
74 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
languages of learning, imperial power, and religion,
attested that He was King of the Jews.
And since he has passed into the glory, He is still
the Priest-King. Not Aaron, but Melchizedek, is
the true type of our Saviour now. As Aaron, He
made Atonement and propitiation for sin; but as
Melchizedek, He has sat down at the right hand of
the throne of God. 'This Melchizedek was King
of Salem, and Priest of the Most High God."
As Priest, Jesus pleads the merit of his blood ; as
King, He exerts power on our behalf. As Priest,
He pacifies the guilty conscience ; as King, He sends
thrills of his own victorious life into our spirits.
As Priest, Pie brings us nigh to God ; as King, He
treads our enemies under his feet. It is of great
importance to us all to think of our Saviour in this
dual aspect. On the one hand, we get all the benefit
of his Cross and Passion; on the other, all the
benefit of his resurrection and session at the right
hand of God. May it not be that the weakness of
thy Christian life is due to the fact that thou hast
viewed Him only in the light of Calvary, and hast
not, with Stephen, seen Him seated at the right
hand of the Majesty on High — a Prince as well as a
Saviour — a Saviour because a Prince? Thank God
for the Lam.b; but rejoice, O child of God, that He
is in the midst of the throne ! He bore the penalty
of thy sin, when He shed his precious Blood; He
will deliver thee from the power of sin, as thou
placest thyself absolutely beneath his royalty, both
King and Lord. When He is absolutely trusted
CHRIST— PRIEST AND KING. 75
and obeyed, he accounts Hitpself absolutely respons-
ible to achieve the uttermost salvation of those who
trust in Him. If there is some sin which defies
theCj at least it shall not be too strong for Him.
And if the outflow of his delivering power toward
thee seems restrained and ineffective, be sure that,
in some one particular, which He will be quick to
show thee, if only thou art willing to be informed,
there has been a failure to yield Him the obedience
which is due to Him as thy King. He sits and rules
upon the throne of the universe ; and, therefore, will
subdue all rule, authority, and power. He must sit
and rule on the throne of thy heart, that there also
He may put down everything which opposes and
obstructs his sway. "God hath exalted Him to be
a Prince and a Saviour."
What majesty there is in these words : "He
shall sit and rule upon his throne, and He shall be
a Priest upon his throne! Let all other beings
stand ; He sits. He sits because of his intrinsic dig-
nity; because of his finished mediatorial work; be-
cause full of a calm expectancy that his foes shall
be subdued under Him. The priests of Aaron's line
stood day by day ministering and offering often-
times the same sacrifices, the which could never take
away sins; but He, "when He had offered one
sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right
hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his
enemies be made the footstool of his feet."
Infinite woe has come to mankind through the
reign of priests. No rule has been so intolerant, so
76 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
capricious, so cruel, as that exercised by some of
the pontiffs, or by priests, of one sort and another,
through monarchs, who have been the creatures of
their will. But this world will never be at rest
until it submits to the beneficent rule of the Lord
Jesus, and acknowledges that the counsel of its
peace emanates from the combination of these two
offices in his sacred person.
III. As THE Priest-king, Christ builds the
Temple of God. — Twice over this is affirmed ; but
what untold comfort the assurance must have
brought when first addressed to that little band of
exiles ! Their temple site was strewn with ruins :
it seemed almost hopeless to contend with thOvSe
heaps of rubbish, impossible to rear a fabric worthy
of the past and adequate for the future; but these
words must have greatly heartened them. As the
hand of Inspiration drew aside the veil, they beheld
another and greater than either Joshua or Zerub-
babel, working with them and for them, and bear-
ing the chief responsibility in all the toils and labors
of their new erection — He; not they. They would
work with new energy and courage, knowing, as
they did, that they were fellow-workers with God.
What difficulty could daunt, what enemies thwart
or frustrate, the work of his right hand?
Is not this as true a description of what is hap-
pening today as it was of those far-off incidents of
temple-building? We may be engaged in building
that spiritual house, that holy temple of saved souls,
which is slowly rising amid the wrecks of time ; and
CHRIST— PRIEST AND KING. 77
sometimes it seems as though the structure will
never be completed. The scaffolding poles and
rafters hide the unfinished walls ; the very pattern is
obscured amid the dust and pother; for every step
in advance there are apparently two or three of
recession and failure, and we break our hearts.
Will the work ever be done? Is it worth all the
expenditure of blood and tears? Shall we not
desist ?
Then we understand that we have much less to do
with it than we supposed ; that we are not so neces-
sary as we thought ; that we are but day laborers at
the best, and that He is the great Master Builder.
It was this that made Paul exclaim : ''We are God's
fellow-workers; ye are God's Husbandry, God's
Building."
If these words should be read by any who are
losing heart because of the difficulties presented by
their parish, their church, or the souls of their
charge, let them be reassured, as they behold the
trowel in the hands of the Priest-King ; and let them
be sure that He will succeed. They know not what
He is doing, or using them to do. They are probably
doing more than they know; and He is responsible
for employing them, whether in the deep founda-
tion-digging, or in the high stories away in the
sunny air. But let them not be discouraged, or
desert Him, lest He be compelled to summon others
to help Him perfect what they commenced.
The crowns of gold were put aside till the temple
was completed, and then deposited there, as a
78 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
memorial to the men who had formed the deputa-
tion; and an assurance was given that those who
were far off should come to add their strength to
that of the returned remnant.
The Spiritual Temple is rising through the ages,
and includes the workmanship of Jew and Gentile,
of bond and free, of those who are the children of
privilege, and those who seemed outside the pale
of salvation. "Remember that aforetime ye, the
Gentiles in the flesh, .... were, at that time,
separate from Christ, alienated from the common-
wealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants
of promise; .... but now — ye are fellow-citizens
with the saints — being built upon the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself
being the chief Corner-stone, in whom the whole
building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy
temple in the Lord."
IX.
3fa6t6 Zuvncb to yeasts*
(Zechariah vii., viii.)
The Jews, during their captivity, appear to have
observed four fasts. Four months were darkened
by them. That of the tenth month recalled the first
enclosure of Jerusalem by the lines of circumvalla-
tion; that of the fourth month commemorated the
capture of the city in the reign of Zedekiah (Jer.
xxxix. 2; Hi. 6, 7) ; of the fifth, the disaster which
capped all, when the house of the Lord was set on
fire (Hi. 12-14) ; that of the seventh, the murder of
Gedaliah, resulting in the dispersion of the remnant
(xli. 1-3).
The Jewish year was thus filled with sad retro-
spects, and the national life was perpetually op-
pressed with gloom : for it is clear that the observ-
ance of these days was a rigorous obligation (Zech.
vii. 4-6).
On their return from captivity the people still
maintained these fasts; and it seems to have struck
some of the exiles who had settled in Bethel as
altogether incongruous to continue wearing sack-
cloth, and casting ashes on their heads, when the
Holy City was rapidly rising from the dust, and
79
8o THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
regaining much of her former prosperity and beauty.
It seemed to savor of unreahty and hypocrisy to
continue to profess a grief which had long since
been assuaged, and even changed into great joy.
Surely the confessions and lamentations, which
were befitting enough in Babylon, were out of place
in the land of their fathers. They sent, therefore,
a deputation to the house of God, to consult the
priests and prophets congregated there, saying:
^'Should I weep in the fifth month, separating my-
self, as I have done these so many years?" (Zech.
vii. 1-3.)
It was a very reasonable inquiry, and becoming
to honorable men, who felt that fasting and mourn-
ing must be both meaningless in themselves and
displeasing to God, unless they were the outward
expression of the soul's genuine emotions. It was
surely worse than useless to keep up an antiquated
form, the effigy of the past, the withered mummy
of a service which once expressed the most profound
anguish and repentance. It is, above all things,
necessary to be real in our religious life — never to
profess what we do not feel. Do not keep up a
form for form's sake, if you have left behind the
experience of w^hich it was once the expression.
Nothing will so deaden the soul as the maintenance
of rites from which the fire and light have died,
leaving them as the scoriae of the volcano.
Zechariah seems to have given four separate
answers to this inquiry. Four times "The Word 01
the Lord of Hosts" came to him.
FASTS TURNED TO FEASTS. 8l
In the first (vii. 4-7), he reminds the people that
these fasts were of their own appointing; and sug-
gests the inference, therefore, that as they had in-
augurated them, they were at hberty to discontinue
them when they chose. He suggests the further
inference, also, that it would have been far better
if, instead of appointing fasts, which satisfied
national sentiment, the people had set themselves
to ponder the words of the older prophets : "Should
ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried
by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was in-
habited, and in prosperity?" It is so much easier to
set up fasts, and to insist on outward observances,
than to bow down the heart before God, and to obey
the ordinances which He has enjoined.
hi the second (vii. 8-14), the prophet says, that
whatever they may or may not do with respect to
the outward fast, they should at least exemplify the
spirit of true religion, which was of priceless im-
portance. "Execute true judgment, and show
mercy and compassion every man to his brother;
and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the
stranger, nor the poor ; and let none of you imagine
evil against his brother in your heart." Thus had
God spoken to their fathers, and thus He was now
speaking with them. Their fathers had refused to
hear, but had made their hearts as an adamant
stone; and it had befallen, therefore, that, as they
were deaf to God's cry, so He had been to theirs.
He had scattered them as with a whirlwind, and left
their land desolate. Thus Zechariah implored the
82 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
people of his time not to yield to the obtuseness and
disobedience of their fathers; that they might
escape their fate, and that no catastrophe should
interrupt the resurrection of their nation, or cast
it back into the disasters with which it had been
visited.
In his third answer (viii. 1-17), Zechariah dilates
on the great prosperity which was awaiting the
chosen city. The Lord had returned to dwell there,
to constitute Jerusalem the city of truth, and Zion,
his holy mountain. The streets should yet be full
of old men and women, staff in hand for very age.
The ringing, careless laughter of boys and girls at
play should proclaim the prosperity and security of
the times. From east and west, contingents of
exiles should troop back to repopulate the former
desolations. ''Now I will not be unto the remnant
of this people as in the former days, saith the Lord
of Hosts. For there shall be the seed of peace ; the
vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give
her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew;
and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit
all these things."
And, again, on these delightful promises ensue
the reiterated appeals — that every man should
speak truth with his neighbor; that true judgment
should be executed in the gates ; and that all things
which God hated should be put away. It was as
though these golden visions of prosperity and
blessedness were enumerated to convince the chosen .
people that God desired to remember their sins no
FASTS TURNED TO FEASTS. 83
more ; and to urge that, instead of dwelling mourn-
fully on the past, they should launch upon the swell-
ing tide of light and love, which was creeping up
their shores.
This is God's way still. He chastens sorely. If
we profane his name and pollute his temple; if we
strike hands in ungodly alliances, and go after
strange gods ; if we dye our hands in the vats of the
world's vanity — we are sent, as Israel was, into
captivity, and our seventy years are fulfilled. But
when we have profited by his stern discipline, and
returned to Him with all our heart and soul, we are
restored to our former position; God's hand wipes
.the tears from our eyes, and He bids us turn from
our bitter repinings over an irretrievable past, to
accept the unalloyed mercy which remembers our
sins no more :
God who, whatever frenzy of our fretting
Vexes sad life to spoil and to destroy,
Lendeth an hour for peace and for forgetting,
Setteth in pain the jewel of his joy.
Such dealings with his rebellious and erring
children are very wonderful. They pass all human
thought. It is much to be forgiven : but to be for-
given so utterly, so completely, so extravagantly,
''according to the riches of his grace" — here is a
marvel indeed. But there is no marvel with Him !
Such grace is no effort to his glorious nature! He
is not sensible of strain! It is simply the bubbling
over of his heart, which is Love. "Thus saith the
Lord of Hosts : If it be marvelous in the eyes of the
84 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
remnant of this people, should it also be marvelous
in mine eyes, saith the Lord of Hosts?" ''His ways
are higher than our ways, and his thoughts than
our thoughts."
In his final answer (viii. 18-23), Zechariah gives
a delightful anticipation of future days, which are
still awaiting complete realization, but in some
measure were fulfilled in the history of the Restora-
tion. "The word of the Lord of Hosts came unto
me, saying, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts ; The fast
of the fourth month, of the fifth, of the seventh,
and of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy
and gladness, and cheerful feasts ; therefore love the
truth and peace" (viii. 18, 19).
This is a welcome exchange. We could not be
surprised to learn that God had so blotted out the
memory of the past that fateful anniversaries would
pass without special recognition. Our memory of
the dark and disastrous is commonly short-lived.
Bitter recollections soon fade from memory's
tablets. What we do not like to recall, we drop
into the keeping of oblivion, and that sea is never in
haste to give up its dead. But the remarkable point
here was, that these anniversaries, which had form-
erly brought the deepest melancholy, would hence-
forth be hailed as festal days, as though the events
which had happened on them, and seemed only dis-
astrous, were really full of the choicest blessing,
and had been misinterpreted. It reminds us of the
dark lines in the spectrum, which stands for new
and unrealized constituents in the solar atmosphere.
FASTS TURNED YO FEASTS. 85
Does the astronomer regret them, when he under-
stands their significance? No, he counts them of
inexpressible worth.
As we inquire how such a revulsion of feeling
could be brought about, we catch a further glimpse
into God's thoughts. He set Himself to assure his
people, in effect, that in the future, when they could
view his dealings in their true perspective, they
would discover that their darkest days had been the
source and origin of their gladdest ones; because
through them they had come to know themselves,
been weaned from their sins, and had acquired
those virtues which attracted the reverence and love
of the world.
Consider again these glowing predictions : "It
shall come to pass that as ye were a curse among the
nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so
will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing." And
again : "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, It shall yet
come to pass, that there shall come peoples, and the
inhabitants of many cities ; and the inhabitants of
one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go
speedily to entreat the favor of the Lord, and to seek
the Lord of Hosts." And again : "Thus saith the
Lord of Hosts, In those days it shall come to pass
that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages
of the nations, shall even take hold of the skirt of
him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for
we have heard that God is with you" (vs. 13, 20,
23)-
These predictions have already been marvelously
86 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
fulfilled. In the midst of the dark night of heathen
idolatry, when the foremost and wisest nations of
the world were given up to the grossest idolatry and
impurity, the synagogues of the dispersed Jews
shone like sparks of light, holding forth the great
doctrines of the unity and spirituality of the Divine
Nature, the need of forgiveness, and the sanctity of
Home. In every considerable Gentile city, the syna-
gogue had a large following of devout proselytes
drawn from the leading Gentile families. From the
Jewish nation came the Saviour of mankind, and
the earliest members of his Church. To Jews we
owe the New Testament, as the Old. It was at
Jerusalem, on the occasion of a Jewish festival, that
the Holy Ghost descended to begin his mighty work.
And in all the so-called Christian ages, while per-
secuting the chosen people, the foremost nations of
the world have taken hold of their skirts, going
with them to their sacred shrines, using their con-
ceptions of God, appropriating their sacred writings,
and venerating their lawgivers, prophets, and saints,
with a reverence equal to their own.
There is also a time, yet future, but probably not
far away, when the Jewish people shall be brought
to own the claims of Jesus, and shall look on Him
with repentance, faith, and love; and then they will
be still more sought after by the nations of the
world as the representatives and teachers of the
only true religion. These days are clearly predicted ;
and the signs on every hand corroborate our faith
FASTS TURNED TO FEASTS. 87
that it shall be even as the prophets, and this prophet
especially, have foretold.
But we can never forget that this vast respect of
the world for the Jewish people dates from the
Babylonish captivity. Before that they were too
fickle in their allegiance to Jehovah, too deeply
tarred by the vile impurities of surrounding peo-
ples, to win either audience or credence, when they
advocated their own religion. What respect could
the nations have for them, when the heights around
Zion were covered by temples to foreign deities;
and when the same defiling rites were practiced
as disgraced the fanes of Chemosh, Molech, and
Astarte? Abana and Pharpar were equal to any of
the waters of Israel; Balaam was as Moses, and
Zoroaster as Elijah.
But the captivity altered everything. They
entered it deeply imbued with polytheism, and left it
the strictest monotheists the world has ever seen.
Their sorrows gave birth to some of their noblest
Scriptures, and made their hold on the sacred Canon
more tenacious than ever. Cast out by man, they
fled to the bosom of God. Divorced from the out-
ward rites of the temple, they were driven to cling
to the spiritual realities, of which the Levitical
institutions were only transient types. Israel owes
all the influence she has wielded in the world to the
anguish which culminated in the conflagration of
the temple; and, if she were wise, she would ever-
more keep those ancient anniversaries of despair as
birthdays of her power. Until March, the farmer
88 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
may regard with regret the days in which he empties
his barns of their precious contents to cast seed into
the soil ; but when April comes, and all the furrows
are covered with the green spires of the young corn,
he reviews those dark winter days with congratula-
tion, and dates from them his glorious heritage.
From this historical review, we are led to appre-
hend the working of an eternal principle, which is
thus enunciated elsewhere by the Holy Spirit:
"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it
yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness with
them that are exercised thereby."
We have all had our dark, sad days. The day
when God said ''No" to some eagerly pressed re-
quest; or when life was overcast by a dread an-
nouncement concerning our own life, or the life of
one dearer to us than life; or when our trust in
man's faith rocked to ruin. We have put a black
mark against those days in our calendar, and are
apt, as these anniversaries occur, to give ourselves
to unrestrained sorrow. It is natural, and God does
not blame the tears which are salt with rebellious
repining. It is natural and human, as we sit by the
crags on which the sea breaks heavily, to regret the
tender grave of a day that is dead, and to long for
the sound of a voice that is still, and to borrow from
Job's magnificent soliloquy :
Let that day be darkness;
Let not God regard it from above,
Neither let the light shine upon it.
FASTS TURNED Tq FEASTS. 89
Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for
their own. But this will not be our final verdict.
Probably in the golden sunset of our life, when we
can see its true meaning and perspective, when its
various parts are fitted together like the variously
shaped pieces of our childhood's puzzles, we shall
see reason to thank God most for our darkest days,
so long as they are not days of sin, and to keep them
as feasts in the eternal noon of heaven. We shall
perceive that out of the darkness light was born ; out
of the anguish joy was born; out of the trial we
entered into God's blessed peace.
That day, when God said *'No" to your hot
desires, was the day of your weaning from the babe-
life into the strength and growth of an independent
existence. That day, when a dark cloud settled on
all your hopes, was the beginning of your new
appreciation of the eternal constellations, shining
unnoticed in your sky. That day, when your Joseph
was torn from you, was really necessary to those
seventeen years of prosperity in the sunshine of
Egypt's favor. That day of captivity, which
snatched you from your busy life, to share Paul's
four years' imprisonment at Cesarea and Rome,
gave birth to deeper views of the nature of Jesus;
so that, whereas you had only known Him as the
Divine Substitute, you came to know Him in his
heavenly glory, seated at the right hand of God ; and
your discoveries not only comforted your stricken
heart, but made for the enrichment of the world.
90 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
Dare to believe this ; dare to anticipate the far-off
interest of tears; dare to live in the day which is
after tomorrow. As Dante said, ''In God's will is
our peace." He loves us infinitely. No good thing
will He withhold. He must lay deep in tears the
foundations that shall upbear our eternal weight of
glory :
Thus hath He done, and shall we not adore Him?
This shall He do, and can we still despair?
Come, let us quickly fling ourselves before Him —
Cast at his feet the burden of our care.
(5ooD 1Rew0 tor ipriaoners ot 1bope.
(Zechariah ix.)
There is a change in the phraseology of the re-
maining chapters of this book. Not now the word
of the Lord, but the burden of the word of the Lord.
By this term we are prepared for tidings of sorrow
and disaster, which are about to fall on the nations
addressed. These burdens lay heavily on the
prophet's soul, who was probably already advanced
in years when he announced them. There is, at
least, a remarkable contrast between the visions of
the earlier, and the predictions of the later chapters.
The difference has even led some critics to suppose
that they were added by another hand; but this
view, founded rather on internal evidence, cannot
be maintained in the face of the strong external
testimony for the unity of the authorship of this
book.
When Zechariah wrote this prophecy, the early
troubles of the returned remnant in the reconstruc-
tion of Temple City, and State, were at an end ; but
they were hemmed in and pressed by Tyre on the
north, and by Ashkelon, Gaza, and Ekron on the
south. It was for their encouragement, therefore,
91
92 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
that he foretold an approaching invasion, before
which their strong and hostile neighbors would be
swept away. Though Tyre had built herself a
stronghold on an apparently impregnable island,
and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the
mire of the streets, and though her counselors were
famous for their wisdom, the Lord would dispossess
her, smiting her power in the sea, and devouring her
palaces with fire. And the devastation which would
befall Damascus and Hadrach (a part of Syria),
would extend southward till the worst fears of
Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron would be realized in
their utter destruction. Philistia would be as a
young lion deprived of its prey, while the chosen
city would be defended by unseen angel forces. "I
will encamp about mine house as a garrison, that
none pass through or return ; and no oppressor shall
pass through them any more; for now have I seen
with mine eyes."
All these predictions were literally fulfilled within
a few years by the invasion of the third of the great
world-conquerors, Alexander the Great. Syria,
New Tyre, and the old seaboard, including the cities
of Philistia, fell under his arms; but both in going
and returning, he spared Jerusalem, being much im-
pressed by a dream, in which he was warned not to
approach the city, and by a solemn procession of
priests and Levites, headed by Jaddua, the high
priest.
Then a stream of exalted prediction ensues, sweet
as the refrain of an angel's hymn, which, as the
GOOD NEWS FOR PRISONERS OF HOPE. 93
Evangelist tells us, was fulfilled when, in lowly tri-
umph, Jesus entered Jerusalem at the beginning of
the week in which He died. 'This came to pass,
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through
the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion,
Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and riding
upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass."
What sublimity there is in the prophet's words, in
which stress is laid on the fact that the king who
saves is lowly; that his steed is not the richly-
caparisoned war-horse, but the humble ass; and
that he needs neither chariot nor battle-bow for the
overthrow of his foes; but speaks peace unto the
nations, as though waving his hands in priestly
benediction over the troubled waters; and lo, there
is a great calm (v. 9, 10).
Then follows the remarkable promise alluded to
in the heading of this chapter. "As for thee also,
because of the blood of thy covenant I have sent
forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no
water. Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of
hope; even today do I declare that I will render
double unto thee."
In eastern lands, liable to long spells of drought,
it is customary to hew cisterns out of the solid rock
for the storage of water, that provision may be
made against the failure of the rains. These abound
in Palestine. ''They hewed out for themselves cis-
terns." When these were empty, they might be
used for other purposes, and at all times provided
a useful retreat, or hiding-place, from the Philistines
94 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
or other hostile neighbors, who periodically poured
up through the valleys, carrying fire and sword to
the peaceful pastoral and agricultural hamlets. Such
use of the rock-hewn cisterns is referred to in these
words, It seemed to the prophet as though Israel
might be compared to a terrified peasantry, shelter-
ing in some dark, dry, mountain cistern, far up
from the valleys, dreading every day lest their
hiding-place might be discovered, and themselves
dragged forth to dye with their blood the green
sward.
Thus, in every age God's people have been im-
prisoned. You may have been caught in the snare
of this world's evil. You have no sympathy with it,
yet somehow you have become involved in the snares
and toils of malign combinations. As the wild thing
of the forest, bounding carelessly down the glade,
suddenly finds itself at the bottom of the dark pit
prepared and hidden by the hunter; so you, who
began life so guilelessly, and passed your early days
so blithely, have awoke to discover yourself in-
volved with people and things, from which you
cannot disassociate yourself. You have no desire
for them — they chafe and try you — but you cannot
get them off. It seems as though some evil spirit
has lassoed you, not indeed in your soul, but in your
home and circumstances.
Or, perhaps, you have been led captive by the
devil at his will. There is no doubt about your son-
ship ; in your better moments, God's Spirit witnesses
clearly with yours that you have been born again;
GOOD NEWS FOR PRISONERS OF HOPE. 95
you have strong yearnings after the souls of others,
and at times are marvelously used for their awaken-
ing and comfort; and yet, during long and sad
periods of experience, you seem the bound slave of
the great enemy of souls. Swept before strong
gusts of passion; careening in the dock; water-
logged until progress in the divine life seems im-
possible, and you can only drift helplessly to and
fro on the tides.
Or, perhaps, you have fallen into deep despond-
ency, partly as the result of ill-health, and partly
because you have looked off the face of Christ to the
winds and waves. The clear-shining of his love is
obscured, and at times it is difficult to believe in
anything but the pressure of your own dark
thoughts. Some of God's children seem to choose
the valley of the shadow of death as the site of their
dwelling, and then employ doubt, dread, and de-
spondency, to design and build the house, which is
sadly like a gaol. They affect the somber tint, and
the despairful tone; and — strange anomaly! — ap-
pear happiest when abandoned to the profoundest
melancholy.
All such are prisoners, hut they are prisoners of
hope. There is a sure and certain hope of their
deliverance. Out of their prisons they shall ulti-
mately emerge, as Peter, angel-led, from his. The
clouds might more easily succeed in imprisoning
the sun than any of these dark conditions perma-
nently hold one of God's children. They belong to
the light and day ; and, though they see it not, Hope,
96 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
as God's angel, is standing near, only waiting his
signal to open the prison door. The prisoner, on
whom the sentence of capital punishment has been
passed, and who has no strong, wise friends to inter-
fere on his behalf, may well abandon hope as he
passes within the massive walls of the fortress, and
hears the heavy gates, one after another, slammed
and locked behind him. But where justice and
truth are on his side, when he has been the victim of
craft and guile, if there be a good wife and strong
friends to espouse his cause, though he be incarcer-
ated, bound with chains on the Devil's Island, and
though the weary years pass over him, yet he is a
prisoner of hope, and shall come forth again into the
light of day. All God's children are prisoners of
hope.
Their hope rests on the Blood of the Covenant.
"Because of the blood of thy covenant, I have sent
forth thy prisoners out of the pit." When God
entered into covenant-relationship with Abraham,
the sacred compact was ratified by the mingled
blood of an heifer of three years old, a she-goat of
three years old, a ram of three years old, a turtle
dove, and a young pigeon. And, in after years,
when beneath the beetling cliffs of Sinai, Moses
acted as mediator between God and the children of
Israel, he sent young men, because the order of
priesthood was not established, which offered burnt-
offerings and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto
the Lord. Then Moses took the blood and sprinkled
part on the altar, and part on the people, saying,
GOOD NEWS FOR PRISONERS OF HOPE. 97
"Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord
hath made with you concerning all these words"
(Gen. XV. 9; Exod. xxiv. 7, 8).
Similarly, when the new covenant — the pro-
visions of which are enumerated in Heb. viii. — was
ratified, it was in the blood of Jesus. As He took
the cup, He said: "This is my blood of the new
covenant, which is shed for many unto the remission
of sins." "And for this cause He is the Mediator
of a new covenant." The shedding of the blood
of the Lamb of God indicates that God has entered
into a covenant relationship with Him, and all
whom He represents, who are, by faith, members
of his mystical body, the Church. On his side. He
promises to be a God to us, and to take us to be his
people; on our side, Christ promises, on our behalf,
that we shall be a people for his own possession,
zealous of good works. This covenant embraces
all who have believed, shall believe, and do believe
in Jesus. It embraces thee, if thou dost at this
moment simply believe in Him as thine, and art
willing to be evermore his. And in placing the cup
to thy lips at the Holy Supper, thou dost visibly and
solemnly attest thy belief that there is a special rela-
tionship between God and thee, not in virtue of thy
worthiness, but for the sake of his Son, that great
Shepherd, who, through the blood of the everlasting
Covenant, was brought again from the dead.
Because of the Blood of the Covenant, God will
send forth each of his imprisoned ones out of the pit.
That blood binds Him to interpose on their behalf.
98 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
Wherever they are, and however thick-ribbed the
walls of their prison, God must deliver them. That
they might have strong consolation. He has con-
firmed his word by an oath. He will bow the
heavens and come down, will ride upon a cherub and
fly, will certainly rescue from the entanglements
and complications of evil.
Suppose two men were bound in the closest, ten-
derest friendship, not needing to exchange blood
from each other's veins, as the manner of some is,
because heart had already exchanged with heart;
and suppose one of these, traveling in Calabria or
Anatolia, was captured by brigands and carried into
some mountain fastness, threatened with death un-
less ransomed by an immense sum of money: can
you imagine his friend at home, in the enjoyment of
opulence and liberty, settling down in circumstances
of ease, and allowing his brother to suffer his miser-
able fate, with no effort for his deliverance? It is
impossible to imagine such a thing! With tireless
perseverance, he would leave no stone unturned,
and the captive might rely on every possible effort
being made for his deliverance. So it is with God.
Whatever be the sad combination of disaster which
has overtaken us. He is bound by the Holy Cove-
nant, sealed by the blood of Jesus, to spare no effort
till our soul is escaped as a bird from the snare of
the fowler, until the snare is broken, and we are
escaped.
There is a remarkable illustration of this in the
story of the conquest of Canaan. By guile, the men
GOOD NEWS FOR PRISONERS OF HOPE. 99
of Ai betrayed Israel into making a covenant with
them. Three days after, their He was exposed ; but
the princes said, '*We have sworn unto them by the
Lord, the God of Israel; now, therefore, we will
not touch them." And when Ai was besieged by
neighboring kings, out of pure revenge, and an
appeal was made for help, it w^as at once furnished,
because of Israel's troth. So, child of God, if you
have made Jesus your King, He is sure to succor
you. Behold, thy King cometh, O prisoner of hope !
He is just, and therefore he has salvation.
Is not this the reason why some of us are not
delivered? We should be glad enough to accept
deliverance, but are not prepared to pay the price.
We have not observed the divine order, and crowned
Jesus King of our hearts and lives. We are wishful
that He should be our Saviour, but not altogether
prepared to accept Him as King. This is our mis-
take; God hath exalted Him to be a Prince and a
Saviour; He is first King of Righteousness, before
He is Priest after the order of Melchisedek : and it
is only when we confess with our mouths Jesus as
Lord, that we shall be saved.
But do not fear Him. His footfall is very soft.
He is lowly, and rides upon a colt, the foal of an
ass. No prancing steed, no banner flaunting in the
breeze, no long train of warriors. Soft as the sum-
mer breeze ; irresistible as the summer sunshine, be-
fore which great tubular bridges bend. Lowly as
a child — thy King, thy King is here. And before
his advent the bars are broken, as though ice were
lOO THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
thawing drop by drop in spring, and letting the im-
prisoned ship through the close-set floes.
The King speaks peace; but He uses his eman-
cipated ones as weapons in the great fight. *'I have
bent Judah for me" (as a man might bend his bow) ;
"I have filled my bow with Ephraim" (as with an
arrow). This, in the first instance, refers to the
struggle of the Maccabees against Alexander's suc-
cessor— Antiochus — as appears in the following
words : 'T will stir up thy sons, O Zion, against thy
sons, O Greece, and will make thee as the sword of
a mighty man." But there is a deeper meaning,
which applies to us all — Jesus first saved us, and
then we become as arrows in the hand of a mighty
man.
O prisoners of hope, lift up your heads ! your sal-
vation is come out of Zion. Turn you to the strong-
hold ! The enemy has been driven from his posi-
tion. There is no more fear of his attack. Take up
your abode in the stronghold of God's care and love,
in the fortress of his Righteousness, in the keep of
his Covenant.
As we turn from this chapter, we cannot but feel
that it contains unexplored depths, which no previ-
ous fulfillment has exhausted ; and which are prob-
ably awaiting further developments, which, at pres-
ent, we cannot prognosticate. When the closing
verses tell us of what God will do for his people,
"seen over them," "defending them," "saving them,
as the stones of a crown glittering on high over his
land" ; when our attention is called to the greatness
GOOD NEWS FOR PRISONERS OF HOPE. lOl
of his goodness and beauty reflected on the people
of his choice — we cannot but feel that days are com-
ing in which He shall yet more conspicuously and
victoriously interpose on their behalf, and when, lit-
erally, his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and
from the river to the ends of the earth. And if such
a surmise be true, this chapter is closely related to
the scenes which are delineated in the last chapters
of this book, and which probably lie just in front
of us, waiting for the withdrawal of the veiling
curtain, which often appears to move with prepara-
tions for the events behind it.
XL
(Zechariah X.)
To the superficial eye there is no difference in the
distance from our earth of the planets and the fixed
stars; but, as a matter of fact, between the one and
the other there is a vast intervening space of millions
of miles. So in regard to these predictions. The
prophet searches "what manner of time" the Spirit
of Christ which is in him signifies. He describes
the great facts revealed to him; but it is not within
his province to announce the times and seasons
which the Father hath kept in his own power. He
sees the mighty mountain ranges ; but it is left for us
to discover that deep and far-stretching valleys lie
between the nearer and the further, between the first
and second advents of Christ. We shall find, there-
fore, the prophet passing from the one to the other,
and grouping on the foreground of his picture in-
cidents which really belong to different ages in the
world's history. Such a method of workmanship
was necessary, if prophecy was to be an incentive to
faith and patience.
We have already had an illustration of this in the
previous chapter, when the advent of the Christ on
102
GOD'S SOWING. 103
his lowly steed, the struggle of the Maccabees, and
the deliverance of Israel in the last years of this
dispensation, are classed together as though pertain-
ing to the same epoch. There is nothing surprising
in such grouping, if we remember that our Lord
inserts the whole Christian dispensation in the break
of a single comma (compare Isa. Ixi. 2, and Luke
iv. 19).
In this chapter and the next, taken as one, we
detect the same fact. We are bidden, in the first
verse, to ask for the latter rain, that Pentecost
which is to close the present age, and which the
apostle Peter describes as "times of refreshing from
the presence of the Lord." These are to be ex-
pected, he tells us, when the Jewish people repent
and turn again to God, and will inaugurate the time
of restitution of all things, whereof God hath spoken
by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been
since the world began. And the rest of the chapter
may be interpreted as referring to the same events.
But the next deals with the destruction of the second
temple by Titus, and the rejection of the true Shep-
herd. In the thirteenth chapter there is a similar
rapid transition from the final cleansing of the
chosen people to the awakening of the sword against
the Shepherd, who is also the fellow of the Lord of
Hosts. And probably there is no satisfactory clue
to the comprehension of the Lord's closing utter-
ances about the fall of Jerusalem, which does not
recognize the same principle. He passes from the
close of one age to that of the other, describing both
104 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
in the same sentences ; and only in a passing phrase,
as when He speaks of the fulfillment of the times of
the Gentiles, does He open to our view the mighty-
gulf of time which was destined to intervene.
If these thoughts are borne in mind, there will
be no obstacle to our deriving help and teaching
from these chapters ; and in the last days of this dis-
pensation we shall be able, with tolerable accuracy,
to assign the various paragraphs to their respective
place on the great chart of God's providential gov-
ernment.
From the summons to ask for the latter rain,
coupled as it is with the Divine promise of a gra-
cious hearing, we are led to a graphic description
of what God will make of his people — a description
which was partially realized in the successful stand
made by Judas Maccabaeus and his brethren against
Antiochus. "Judah was as his goodly horse in the
battle. From him came forth the corner-stone, from
him the nail, from him the battle-bow, from him
every exactor together." The following description
of their successes against their foes, treading them
down in the battle, as mire in the streets, was fully
verified during that brief but glorious period, when
for a little the waning splendor of the Hebrew people
shone out in its pristine beauty. But when the
prophet goes on to class Joseph with Judah, and to
speak of the people being brought again from the
ends of the earth, the mightiest nations being hum-
bled for their sake, and the promised land, though
inhabited to Lebanon on the north and to Gilead on
GOD'S SOWING. 105
the east, being too small for them, we feel that
there looms before his vision something greater than
has taken place, or shall take place, till God sum-
mons His people from all the world to inhabit their
own land — as the bee-farmer hisses for his bees,
scattered in search of honey throughout meadows
and garden (ver. 8).
In the meanwhile, during the present age, we may
view the Jewish race as so much buried seed. "I
will sow them among the people; and they shall
remember Me in far countries; and they shall live
with their children, and shall return."
x\t the end of the seventy years' captivity the
people of God's ancient choice were distributed
through Parthia, Media, Persia, Mesopotamia, Cap-
padocia, Pontus, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya
and Rome, Crete and Arabia. Everywhere through-
out the great Roman Empire they fell into the
ground to die. So far as their natural life was con-
cerned, they seemed on the point of being obliterated
among the nations of the world; but you might as
well talk of the obliteration of the seed which the
husbandman casts into the autumn furrows. They
built their synagogues, throve in the quarters as-
signed to them in the great cities, and disseminated
new conceptions of God, high ethical standards, a
fresh religious speech, destined to be of incalculable
service to the early preachers of Christ's Evangel.
At this present hour the Jews lie sown among all
the nations of the earth. But they still live, with
their children, and shall one day return. There
Io6 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
shall be springtime, earing, and harvest. The sea
of affliction has too long rolled over them, with the
thunder of its mighty billows. Its wide expanse has
stretched out between them and their great destiny ;
but their Almighty Friend shall yet pass through
it, smiting its waves and drying up its depths,
achieving a national deliverance, so that they may
reoccupy the land given in covenant to their fathers.
It was thus with the first believers. By the rough
hand of the persecutor, the rich wheat of Pentecost,
which had laid too long in the bin of the mother
Church, was scattered abroad throughout the re-
gions of Judea and Samaria. "They therefore that
were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching
the Word." ''They therefore that were scattered
abroad, upon the tribulation that arose about
Stephen, traveled as far as Phenicia, and Cyprus,
and Antioch." These spring sowings yielded a mar-
velous return. There was such a crop of churches
and converts as multiplied the original number of
the Church a hundredfold. Though there was a
diminution of the numbers at Jerusalem, there were
sheaves of golden corn throughout the world's
acreage.
How many illustrations have existed, throughout
the entire history of the Church, of the effect of
God's sowings ! "My Father is the Husbandman,"
said our Lord. With both hands He has prosecuted
his work of sowing. In the persecutions of Nero,
Decius, and Diocletianus, the precious seed of the
Kingdom was sown deep in the dark graves of agony
GOD'S SOWING. 107
and death. Surely the great Sower went forth weep-
ing, as He bore the precious seed to its destined
ministry. It was buried in the voracious animals
of the arena, in the labyrinths of the catacombs, in
the dens and caves of the earth; but it lived again
in millions of converts that so filled the earth as to
appall and silence their persecutors. The emperors
at last gave up the work of slaughter, because
martyrdoms only served to root Christianity deeper
in the empire. The blood of the martyrs became
the seed of the Church.
There was a grand quality in the corn of the
Waldensian Valleys, in the Paulicians, the Hus-
sites, the Lollards, which was sown by the Master
in the dungeons of the Inquisition, in mockings and
scourgings, in bonds and imprisonment, in the fires
of martyrdom, and in the current of swiftly-flowing
rivers. But what harvests it all yielded! There
was, for instance, the harvest of the Reformation
in Germany, of the Huguenots in France, and of
the Puritans in England. It would be impossible
to compute the vast hosts of the true disciples of
Jesus through the dreary Middle Ages, because the
apostate Church has concealed their number and
misrepresented their influence. But many pages
of the Lamb's Book of Life must be filled with their
names. "A great multitude which no man can
number, of every nation, and tribe, and people."
So in later days. The martyrs of Uganda have
yielded today three hundred Christian churches.
The devoted labors of saintly missionaries in India,
io8 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
Burmah, China, and Africa, who fell into the ground
of obscurity, and loneliness, and disappointment, and
died among strangers, many of them prematurely
or violently — have resulted in the salvation of
myriads. There was a handful of corn in the tops
of mountains, in the ledges, where the earth was
deep and rich enough to admit of a grave being
dug, and the fruit thereof has shaken like Lebanon.
In all probability many of the children of God who
read these lines know what sowing means. They,
too, have fallen into the ground to die. That ob-
scure village in which your friends say you are
buried ; that humble position in which your powers
are cramped and limited by neglect and confinement ;
that bed of suffering and weakness; that incessant
demand to undertake menial and lowly drudging;
that summons to leave home and friends, and sphere
of successful labor, to become the companion of
savage and illiterate people — all this is the grave,
with its darkness and silence, in which God sows
his people ; not that they should abide there forever,
but that they should bring forth much fruit. You
shall live through other lives. Your prayers and
alms shall be a memorial before God, and the day
shall reveal the wonderful ways in which you have
no longer abode alone.
Listen to the complaint of the buried seed : "Lord,
in trouble have we visited Thee. We have poured
out our prayer when thy chastening was upon us.
We have been with child; we have been in pain;
we have, as it were, brought forth wind; we have
GOD'S SOWING. 109
not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither
have the inhabitants of the world fallen." And here
is the Divine response: 'Thy dead shall live; my
dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that
dwell in the dust ; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs,
and the earth shall cast forth the dead."
Sowing means death. * 'Except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die * * * " We must be
prepared to die, not only to sins, and weights, and
self-indulgences, but to our own notions of pleasing
God, to our emotional life, to our self -congratula-
tion at the results of Christian service, to the energy
and enthusiasm of our devotion. The little corn
of wheat must feel very disconsolate when it finds
itself attacked by chemical agents lurking in the
soil, that begin to tear at its integuments and strike
their rapiers at its heart. It is sad at having to
surrender its beauty of form, its sprightly nimble-
ness, its secret soul. Dying is not easy work. And
when the process is prolonged, when the disintegra-
tion of the self-energy takes place by slow degrees,
it is bitter to bear.
Sowing means darkness. Through long months
the seed lies in darkness and has no light. Madame
Guyon tells of prolonged seasons in which she lost
all the joy of God, that she might be led to God
Himself. It is a strange experience ; "God removes
all conscious experience of his grace, all power to
work for Him, and the very beauty of the Divine
virtues." The soul does not fall away from God,
because He is beside it while it treads the dark
1 10 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
valley; but it goes ever deeper into the grave of
Jesus — no song on its lips, no rapture at its heart,
no ray of sunlight from the former sources of hope
and consolatior- .
Sowing means loneliness. The corn of wheat falls
into the ground to die, that it may not abide alone;
but this dying is necessarily a long experience. Each
man is born alone, and aloie he dies. God will
perhaps touch your friends, and you will be sepa-
rated from them by misunderstandings; your home
life, so that your dearest will be called from your
side; your church relationships, and you will have
to go forth without the camp, bearing his reproach.
But there is no one who has left brethren, or sister,
or father, or mother, or children, for Christ's sake,
that shall not receive a hundredfold in this time,
houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and
children; and in the age to come eternal life.
But God does not forget the buried seed. Can a
woman forget her sucking child? Can a farmer
forget the seed which at so much pains he flung
abroad on the brown furrows? Can God forget
those who have not counted their lives dear unto
themselves, but for his sake have been killed all the
day long, and counted as sheep for the slaughter?
They shall be his, in the day that He shall make
even his peculiar treasure.
In that wonderful ladder or scale of ascending
prayer, of which we are informed in Hosea, we hear
the heaven calling to God, the earth calling to
heaven, and the corn, wine, and oil calling to the
GOD'S SOWING. Ill
earth, and Jezreel (the sown) calling to the corn,
wine, and oil. And as the result of these appeals,
ringing through earth and heaven, He who had
sown his people in the earth, has mercy on them,
and says, Thou art my people; and they say unto
Him, Thou art our God. "Doubtless Thou art our
Father, though Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel
doth not acknowledge us: Thou, O Lord, art our
Father, our Redeemer from everlasting."
When the destined hour has come the buried
seed hears the call of spring to arise and come forth
from her cell. The voice that bade Lazarus come
forth is heard deep down in the recesses of the
earth. That which was in the grave hears the voice
of the Word of God, and comes forth. How beau-
tifully the words of the prophet's vision lend them-
selves to the metamorphosis of the spring: "So I
prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath
came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their
feet, an exceeding great army."
Yes, buried ones, God does not forget your work
and the love which ye have showed toward his
name, in that ye have ministered to his saints, and
still minister, though your ministries be hidden from
the admiration of the great world. Your resurrec-
tion is guaranteed. You may not be able to dis-
cover the body of usefulness with which you will
be clothed. God will give you your body as it pleases
Him, and to each its own. But your death shall be
swallowed up in the victory of life, and God shall
wipe all tears from your eyes.
112 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
And that new life will he God's. 'They shall re-
member Me, * * * and they shall live." Jesus said
that he who believed in Him, through he were
dead, yet should he live. Now, to believe is to re-
ceive. Evidently, then, the life which comes after
death is by the reception into our spirit of Him who
is the Resurrection and the Life. We obtain by
union with Jesus, and direct from God, all that we
had previously sought in his service, his gifts, his
people.
''The soul lives no longer, works no longer of
itself. It is God (by the Holy Spirit) who lives,
works, operates within it. This goes on increas-
ingly, so that it becomes rich with his riches. It is
also enriched and revivified by degrees as it was
stripped by degrees (2 Cor. iii. 18). The soul lives
with the life of God. He being the principle of life,
it cannot want for anything. It has lost the created
for the Creator; nothingness for all things. All is
given to it in God, not to possess, but to be pos-
sessed" (2 Cor. vi. 10; Col. ii. 9).
You have, as it were, been buried in Egypt; but
God is going before you, smiting the waves of the
sea and drying up the depths of the mighty river,
which had seemed an impassable barrier. He will
strengthen you to follow Him; only dare to step
out in faith, and you shall walk up and down in his
name (x. 12).
Who shall estimate the results? One head of
corn may have fifty seed-corns, and each of these
fifty, and each of these again fifty. At this rate we
GOD'S SOWING. 113
may soon arrive at tens of thousands. Behold the
revenue of your tears, and prayers, and anguish.
God will richly compensate. Lift up thine eyes and
see. They gather themselves together, they come to
thee ; thy sons shall come from far, and thy daugh-
ters borne in arms. The little one shall become a
thousand, and the small one a strong nation, because
the Lord will hasten it in his time.
XII.
Zbc SbepberO of ITsraeL
(Zechariah xi. 1-17; xiii. 5-9.)
If these two passages are read together, it will be
observed that they give some remarkable foreshad-
owings of the ministry of the Messiah to his flock
of the chosen people, as well as to those other sheep
of which He spake, as not of that fold, but which
He must bring, that they should become one flock,
one Shepherd (John x. 16).
Five hundred years before Judas sold the true
Shepherd for thirty pieces of silver — the price of a
slave — and then, seized with remorse, flung the price
of blood upon the Temple pavement, that scene had
been enacted in the streets of Jerusalem, freshly
risen from their ruins. There is prophecy in action,
as well as prediction ; and the Holy Spirit often led
the prophets to embody in striking deeds the con-
ceptions of the future which had been impressed on
their own minds.
At the time of which we write the Jewish people
seem to have been specially unfortunate. Joshua
and Zerubbabel had both passed away, and the rulers
and priests who had succeeded them were actuated
by the most violent passions. They resembled fire
114
THE SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL. 1 1 5
devouring the cedars of Lebanon, or the ax by which
the oaks of Bashan are felled. They slew the flock
for the fleece, and the people became a prey to their
rapacious appetite for self-aggrandisement. "They
that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am
rich, and their own shepherds pity them not." Hand
was raised against hand, the rich plundered the poor,
the rulers {his king, verse 6) smote the land with
their violence and injustice, and every weaker one
was delivered over to the oppression of high-handed
wrong.
It was under such circumstances that Zechariah
felt called upon to become the shepherd of Jehovah's
harried flock, and to stand in the breach which
should have been filled by faithful and righteous
men. Whether Israel generally recognized his pas-
toral authority does not appear; but he realized
strongly the call of God, and fed the flock of slaugh-
ter, verily the most miserable of sheep (verse 7,
R. v.^ marg.).
Two staves were in his hand : the one a club to
beat back the beasts of prey; the other the crook,
with which to extricate any of his charge that might
be entangled in pit or thicket. The one was called
Beauty, or Grace ; the other Bands, or Union. These
were the rod and staff of which David had sung in
earlier days, and they represent God's perpetual atti-
tude toward his sheep. He ever deals with them
in abundant grace; He is united to them, as they
should be united to each other, by the bonds of
everlasting love.
1 16 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
Three shepherds, which probably stand for the
threefold office of Priest, Prophet, and King, had
already failed in the difficult work of restoring order
to the disturbed and distressed land. There had been
an inalienable disagreement between the Divine
Spirit and them. ''My soul was weary of them, and
their soul also loathed Me."
After a brief effort to reclaim Israel for its true
Shepherd, Zechariah renounced the attempt, saying,
'T will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and
that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let
them which are left, eat every one the flesh of an-
other." He broke his staff of beauteous grace, and
cut it asunder, as though the tender love of God had
withdrawn from its long wrestle with indomitable
pride and self-will. As he did so, the poor of the
flock that gave heed unto him, knew that he was
acting in accord with the word of the Lord (verse
II).
Then came the crucial test. The prophet chal-
lenged the people to appraise his services, to give him
their estimate in money value. "I said unto them. If
ye think good, give me my hire; and if not, forbear."
This incident may have taken place in the Temple,
as he stood with his remaining staff in hand, face
to face with those that held priestly office, though
they lacked the priestly heart. In contempt and
scorn they weighed out to him thirty pieces of sil-
ver, the price of a slave. "There, prophet of God,"
they seemed to say, "take that ! Thy services are as
worthless to the community as those of some obscure
THE SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL. H?
menial employed in the lowest service !" A goodly
price indeed for a man's prayers and tears, for a
heart of compassion, and a life of absolute self-sur-
render! ''Cast it unto the potter," said the inner
voice; and, as for this people, they shall pass into
the hand of rulers, who shall eat the flesh of the fat,
and drive them along paths so rough and flinty that
their hoofs will be torn in pieces — a prediction which
had a terrible fulfillment in the days of Antiochus
and of Herod the Great.
Thereupon the prophet also broke in pieces the
other staff, Bands, that the brotherhood between
Judah and Israel might be broken in symbol, as
afterward in reality. How evidently that brother-
hood is broken today! The Jews among us are
the descendants of Judah and Benjamin; but where
are the ten tribes ?
In the following paragraph (vers. 15-17) there
is a further evident reference to the terrible reign
of Antiochus, whose cruelties toward the Jews in-
stigated the heroic uprising of the Maccabees and
their adherents, and led to deeds of faith and prowess
which will be forever famous in the annals of the
world.
Five centuries passed, and Jehovah made one last
effort to reclaim his wandering sheep, who were
"distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a
shepherd" (Matt. ix. 36). Full of grace and truth,
fresh from the bosom of the Father, Jesus was sent
to gather the flock, which had been scattered in the
cloudy and dark day. It was already a flock of
1 18 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
slaughter when He began his ministry. The dark
shadows of that awful storm of disaster and de-
struction, which was, within a period of forty years,
to sweep Mount Zion bare, had already commenced
to brook ominously over the devoted race. If his
gracious offices had been recognized and accepted,
that slaughter might have been averted. With his
staff of grace and his crook of love, the Good Shep-
herd might have brought his flock from out the
dangers that threatened it, and realized the ancient
prediction of Ezekiel : "I will feed them with good
pasture, and upon the mountains of the height of
Israel shall their fold be; there shall they lie down
in a good fold, and on fat pasture shall they feed
upon the mountains of Israel." But they would
have none of Him. He would have gathered them
as the hen her brood, yet they would not. There-
fore He was compelled to break his rod and staff,
and abandon them to the results of their sin. He
was compelled to abandon his earnest endeavors,
and, quitting the Temple, uttered the ominous words,
"Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For
I say unto you. Ye shall not see Me henceforth till
ye shall say. Blessed is He that cometh in the name
of the Lord" — a prediction which probably refers to
the period described in the last chapter of this book.
As Jesus withdrew from the Temple, the last effort
of Jehovah to save Israel as a nation was frustrated ;
the greatest of her prophets had failed, and the last
barrier to the catastrophe of descending judgment
was removed.
THE SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL. 1 19
It was at this juncture that the nation was chal-
lenged to appraise the worth of the Saviour's min-
istry. Between Judas and the priests a monstrous
bargain was struck. 'They weighed unto him thirty
pieces of silver." This meager dole of the priests
stands in grim contrast to the priceless gift of Mary's
ointment, at which Judas caviled ; but for this, and
so little as this, the Messiah was sold, betrayed, and
done to death.
Rejected by his own, the people whom He ar-
dently longed to save, and forsaken by his chosen
followers, the Good Shepherd went forth alone to
meet the sword. Not the sword of Caiaphas, or the
priests; not the sword of Pilate, or the Romans;
not the sword of impending justice — but the sword
of righteous retribution for the sins of Israel, and
the sins of the world. Jew though He were by
birth, He was more. The Son of Man, the second
Adam, the Lord from Heaven — such are the desig-
nations placed on his head, like many crowns. It
was as the representative of the race that He went
to receive into his own heart the penalty which, like
the sword of Damocles, hanging by a hair, impended
not over Jerusalem alone, but over the world. He
had heard the mysterious summons sounding
through the courts of the Temple, and along the
corridors of time, "Awake, O sword, against my
Shepherd, and. against the Man that is my Fellow,
saith the Lord of Hosts. Smite the Shepherd.'*
That sword had flashed in the hand of the Cheru-
bim, at the gate of Eden; had turned every way to
I20 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
guard the path to the Tree of Life ; had threatened
to pursue the transgressing pair with its relentless
edge. It was the sword of justice, the two-edged
sword of the Word of God, which avenges dis-
obedience with death. For four thousand years
it had slept in its scabbard, pacified, if we may say
so, by the Divine assurance that the mercy shown to
men would be reconciled with the due acknowledg-
ment of the righteous demands of a broken law.
But it could not sleep forever. God's promise must
be redeemed, and his guarantee made good ; and so,
in the fullness of time, Jesus was set forth as a
propitiation, showing the Divine righteousness in
passing over sins done aforetime, in the forbear-
ance of God, and enabling God Himself to be just,
and the Justifier of those that have faith in Jesus.
When our Lord was arrested in the garden, con-
demned by his judges, and, finally, nailed to the
cross ; when his heart broke with uncontrollable and
unfathomed grief ; when the soldier took a spear and
pierced his side — simultaneously with these outward
scenes there was the awakening of the sword of
Divine justice, which pierced and laid bare his heart.
"He was wounded for our transgressions. He was
bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our
peace was upon Him; and with his stripes we are
healed." We cannot penetrate the deep mystery
w^hich veils the cross, or understand how the suffer-
ing of the Shepherd could be counted as equivalent
to our bearing the results of our sins. It is difficult
to comprehend the transferrence of penalty from a
THE SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL. 121
sinful race to the sinless Substitute. But it is im-
possible to read the inspired statements that describe
the death of Christ without realizing that, in some
way, which we shall, perhaps, understand in heaven,
He met and satisfied the claims of violated law, so
that it can ask no more. The quotation of this verse
by our Lord Himself on the threshold of Geth-
semane (Matt. xxvi. 31) indicates, with unerring
precision, its reference and fulfillment; and we be-
lieve that because the sword was plunged in his
heart, it will sleep forever. The law is magnified
and honored, as it could not be by the destruction
of a race. However much we prize the death of
Christ, our Lord, as an example of patience and
self-sacrifice, we must never forget that He did for
us what we never could have done for ourselves in
magnifying, satisfying, and honoring the claims of
the Divine law.
It is interesting to notice how our Lord quotes
this summons to the sword. The prophet hears it
addressed directly by the lips of God, "Awake, O
sword, against my Fellow"; but in the thought of
Jesus, it was not a dumb and impersonal agent
merely, with power of automatic or self-prompted
action, but an instrument in his Father's hand. In
his lips the quotations stands: *7 will smite the
Shepherd." With Him there was no vague abstrac-
tion or impersonality. It was not an attitude or
quality of the Divine nature, such as justice or
righteousness, that drew the sword from its scab-
bard and plunged it in his heart. He even refused
122 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
to see Judas, Caiaphas, or Pilate. Passing by all
these secondary causes, He sped into the very pres-
ence of the Father, and realized that the cup was
mixed, the death of the cross arranged, and the
sword wielded by Him. This enabled Him to bear
his unutterable woe with yielded will and acquiescing
heart.
In this, O child of God, learn a life lesson. In all
anxieties, in troubles that men may cause to thee,
refuse to consider thyself a prey of their wild will,
as though thou wert a storm-driven leaf ; but dare to
believe that what God permits to come is his ap-
pointment, and that amid all the plottings and mach-
inations of human malice runs a Divine purpose.
The infinite meaning and value of the death of
the Cross are indicated by the three significant ap-
pellations with which the Sufferer is addressed.
My Shepherd. — Mark that emphatic my. It is
as though Jehovah would contrast the Shepherd of
his choosing with those that had been selected by
human caprice. His Davids against the people's
Sauls. From out of the family of man God has
drawn, and is drawing, certain who are attracted by
a special affinity to his Son, wrought in them by
his Holy Spirit; and these are accounted his flock,
and are entrusted to his pastoral care. They were
the Father's ; but the Father has made them over to
the Son, according to Christ's own words: "Thine
they were, and Thou gavest them Me, * * * and
these have known that Thou didst send Me." Dis-
tinguished from the rest of men — ^because they hear
THE SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL. 123
the Shepherd's voice, know, and follow Him — these
enjoy immediately and intimately his pastoral care.
He guides them over the wolds of time, feeding them
on the green pastures, and beside the still waters;
conducting them through darksome gorges and dan-
gerous glens; defending them from lion and bear
with rod and staff ; and even in the realms of glory
not ceasing to be their Shepherd. They follow Him
even deeper into the heart of eternity, where the
fountains of life first break forth into sight.
This thought for the sheep committed to his cus-
tody possessed the mind of the Great Shepherd on
the night in which He was betrayed, when He went
forth to meet Judas and the arresting band. Placing
Himself between them and the frightened little
group that cowered behind Him, He said, 'Tf ye seek
Me, let these go their way." If He had been an
hireling, when He saw the wolf coming, He would
have fled ; but because He was God's Shepherd, He
stood between his own and peril, as He always will
do in every dark hour that may menace us between
this and the safety of the gates of pearl.
We have a strong claim on Jesus, because He is
God's Shepherd, the representative of the Divine
care, the custodian of the Divine honor. In every
prayer for help, we may remind Him that He stands
to us as the gift and sponsor of the Divine faithful-
ness. He must be to us all that God Himself would
be.
My Fellow. — When our Lord quoted this text
in the upper room, as He rose to leave it, He stopped
124 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
before He reached these words. But the omission
was not due to any hesitation on his part to appro-
priate them. He knew that He was Jehovah's Fel-
low, else He would never have included the Father
with Himself in the significant pronoun, We. ''We
will come, and make our abode with Him." He
counted not equality with God a prize to be grasped
at. And it was the fact of his being Jehovah's
Fellow that made his death of such infinite worth.
Man could not have redeemed his fellow; but the
Infinite Lawgiver Himself, taking to his heart the
penalty of his own broken law, afforded it the great-
est possible homage and satisfaction.
Surely there is a designed contrast between Fellow
and Hosts. God is the Lord of many Hosts, in
heaven, and earth, and sea; but He has only one
Fellow. All the Hosts of angels and nature had not
availed for the work of propitiation — this He must
do Himself; and He did it in the person of Jesus.
The Man. — ''The Man that is my Fellow." By
his tears and anguish, by the pains of death and
the article of dissolution, his humanity was attested.
And how real, how tender, how near they make Him
to us all. No man so abject and sinful but may
approach Him, when he is numbered with the trans-
gressors,and hangs in death between two malefac-
tors. Would you touch God through his Fellow,
then touch yonder dying Man. The gulf is bridged ;
the yawning chasm is spanned. By the grace of the
one Man we may now receive the abundance of
grace, and reign in life, here and hereafter.
THE SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL. 125
Beware how you treat this blessed Man. Still
men sell Him for thirty pieces of silver; tread be-
neath their wanton feet his precious blood; and do
despite to his grace. Still they prefer their paltry
silverlings to his matchless worth. Would that their
blind eyes were opened to see the matchless glory and
beauty of Him who stands at their door to knock.
The disciples were scattered when their Shepherd
was taken. He had foreseen this : ''Behold the hour
cometh, yea, is come, that ye shall be scattered, every
one to his own, and shall leave Me alone." And it
seemed as though the hand of God was against them,
to their utter undoing in the dread hours that fol-
lowed. But who shall tell the woes that befell the
chosen people that had rejected the Messiah! The
disciples wept for but a little space, and their sorrow
was soon turned into joy. But the Jews succumbed
beneath the woes, which, within forty years, befell
their nation. It came to pass in all the land, that
two parts were cut off, while the remainder passed
through the fire, and have been passing through it
ever since. Nor can it be otherwise, until they
acknowledge Jesus as their true Shepherd, and allow
Him to fold them, and humble themselves to be-
come the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his
hand.
XIII.
XLbc Spirit of ©race anD Supplication.
(Zechariah xii., xiii.)
There is unusual solemnity in these opening
words, as though to assure us that there can be no
doubt as to the sufficiency of the speaker to carry
into effect all that He is about to unfold. 'Thus
saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens,
and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth
the spirit of man within him."
The vision itself refers to a time yet future, though
perhaps not far away, when the Jewish people shall
have returned to their own land, but still in unbe-
lief. Indeed, it is supposed by some that they will
be in actual league with some awful impersonation
of Antichrist, in accordance with Daniel ix. 27. For
some reason, for the present veiled in mystery, the
anti-Semitic hate with which some of the nations of
Europe are already smitten will then become uni-
versal, "and all the nations of the earth shall be
gathered together against Jerusalem." But their
confederacy will be overwhelmed with infinite dis-
aster. Such is the burden of this threefold affirma-
tion : ^
120
SPIRIT OF GRACE AND SUPPLICATION, 127
"Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling
unto all the peoples round about" (ver. 2).
"I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for
all the peoples" (ver. 3).
"In that day will I make the chieftains of Judah
like a torch of fire in a sheaf" (ver. 6).
Immediately upon this, an assurance is given that
in that awful day, more fully described in the suc-
ceeding chapter, the Lord shall save, and the Lord
shall defend (vs. 7, 8). In clouds the long-rejected
Messiah, accompanied by his Bride — the Church —
will appear to the succor of his brethren, as Joseph
interposed on the behalf of his; and, as they behold
Him seated at the right hand of power, and com-
ing, as He told Caiaphas He would, in the clouds of
heaven, they will appropriate the old refrain, pre-
pared by Isaiah for this very occasion; when He
shall swallow up death in victory, and take away
the reproach of his people from off all the earth :
"Lo, this is our God ; we have waited for Him, and
He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited
for Him, we v/ill be glad and rejoice in his salva-
tion" (Isa. XXV. 9). "Behold, He cometh with the
clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they
which pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth
shall mourn over Him. Even so. Amen." Then
the Lord Jesus will slay the lawless one with the
breath of his mouth, and bring Him to naught by
the brightness of his coming. And then the solemn
and awful threatenings of this passage will take
effect : "It shall come to pass in that day, that I will
128 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
seek to destroy all the nations that come against
Jerusalem."
Let us now turn from this side of the picture to
consider the threefold effect that this interposition
will have on the Jews themselves :
"In that day shall there be a great mourning"
(ver. ii).
"In that day there shall be a fountain opened"
(xiii. i).
"It shall come to pass in that day, that I will cut
off the names of the idols out of the land" (ver. 2).
I. A Great Mourning. — Notice the certainty of
this announcement. "There shall be a great
mourning in Jerusalem." There is no hesitation in
the prophet's speech. He is as sure as the apostle
Paul, when he says : "So all Israel shall be saved."
This is a solemn reflection for the traveler, as he
perambulates the streets of Jerusalem, or visits the
piece of ancient wall by which the Jews wail weekly.
There shall be a great mourning, not because the
Turk has desecrated the sacred places, nor because
the ruins of bygone days affront with their yawning
gaps, nor yet because of the bitter sufferings of the
much-hated race; but each for a personal rejection
of the Messiah, who was driven through those streets
and crucified without the gate.
The Comparison. "As the mourning of Hadad-
rimmon in the Valley of Megiddon." At this spot
the good King Josiah, whose reign had been the
only gleam of brightness in the period between the
SPIRIT OF GRACE AND SUPPLICATION. 129
reign of Hezekiah and the downfall of the State,
was done to death by the Egyptian arrows. Jere-
miah, the prince of lamenters, lamented for Josiah,
and all the singing men and singing women spake
of him in their lamentations. There never had been
such miiversal and heart-rending sorrow since Israel
became a nation, as that which arose when the royal
chariot drove throilgh Jerusalem bearing his dead
body for burial; but such grief is the only symbol
adequate to express that coming national agony,
when Israel shall look on her rejected Lord and
mourn.
Yet another metaphor is pressed into service. The
anguish with which a parent mourns for his only
son, the bitterness of sorrow for a first born, is heart-
rending in any land, and among all peoples; but it
is peculiarly so in an Eastern — a Hebrew — home.
Yet the bitter mourning which is one day to fill Jeru-
salem will be like that — as it was in the land of
Egypt, when every family mourned over the death
of its. first born.
It will be universal. From the highest to the low-
est of the court — for Nathan here stands for the
youngest of David's sons; from the highest to the
lowest of the priestly order — for Shimei stands for
the least conspicuous of the priestly clans; all the
people that remain shall be bowed in one common
act of contrition. It is much to see one prodigal
stricken with remorse — what will it be when a whole
nation beats on its breast, and bewails its sins!
Every wind laden with dirges, all the open spaces
130 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
black with prostrate forms, all eyes wet with
tears, the somber shadow of the funeral pyre flung
over all.
It will be lonely! "Every family apart, and their
wives apart." Excessive grief seeks seclusion. It
brooks no distraction; its attention is too absorbed
with the object of its agony to have thought for any-
thing beside. It did not seem surprising to her
friends when Martha arose from a house full of
mourners and hastened away. They whispered, ''It's
natural enough : she wants to be alone. She goeth
to the grave to weep there." So this mourning will
isolate people. Each will feel personally concerned ;
each will feel as though chiefly responsible; each
will take to his own heart the crucifixion of the
Messiah, and will turn the Misere into a wail of
personal confession. '7 have sinned; / pierced his
hands and feet ; / am of all men most miserable, and
of all sinners the chief."
It will he due to a vision of the mediatorial suf-
ferings of Jesus. ''They shall look on Him whom
they pierced, and they shall mourn." There is no
doubt as to the application of these words, for as
the beloved apostle stood beside the cross, on which
only the precious casket of the Jewel — the body of
our Lord — remained, and saw the soldier pierce his
side, as the blood and water issued forth, he was
reminded by the Holy Ghost that this Scripture was
being fulfilled (John xix. 34-36).
This is the fact which the Spirit of God delights
to use for the breaking of our hard hearts. They
SPIRIT OF GRACE AND SUPPLICATION. 131
are broken on the broken heart of Jesus. They are
pierced by the sight of His piercing. They mourn
when they look on Him whom they pierced.
There are two kinds of sorrow — the one to death,
the other to hfe. The first considers the penalty
of our wrong-doing ; the second the Person against
whom the wrong has been done. The one is largely
selfish, dreading only the scorpion whip and the
sting of flame — it would cease in a moment if these
were withdrawn; the other is altogether regardless
of consequences that may accrue to itself, and bit-
terly laments that shame and sorrow have been
brought to the heart of Jesus, so true, so tender, so
altogether lovely.
Sinners seeking forgiveness often appear to think
that they must bring some need of sorrow as a con-
dition of acceptance with the Saviour. If only they
can feel an adequate sorrow for sin, they may surely
bring their tears as a price for his mercy, as a reason
for his salvation. But we can never feel an adequate
sorrow for sin. To wait for this will be to wait for-
ever. To postpone coming until the tear-bottles are
full, will be to postpone forever. Besides, the spir-
itual philosophy of the matter is that we shall never
get the right sorrow for sin till we see Jesus, and
are admitted into the intimacy of his love. The tears
that we do not need to weep over come, not before,
but after conversion. It was after the poor sinful
outcast had been forgiven that she washed the
Saviour's feet with tears. It was when Jesus turned
and looked upon Peter that he went forth to weep
132 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
biicerly. We must come to Christ as we are, not
trying to realize what sin is, not seeking to be
smitten with adequate grief, but just accepting his
finished work and trusting Himself : after this will
come the forth-pouring of our grief. The eyes that
first look to Him for salvation may be tearless, but
they will not long remain so. The first act may be
largely one of will ; but the last will be of the emo-
tions. When we have looked on Him whom our
sins pierced, we shall mourn as one mourneth for
his only son, and be in bitterness as one in bitterness
for the first born.
Let us distinguish, then, between Repentance and
Penitence. The one is the child of the will; the
other of the heart. We repent when we turn from
sin to Christ ; we are penitent when we meet his eyes
as Peter did, and go out to weep bitterly. To repent
is the definite act of the moment ; but penitence will
accompany us to the very gates of heaven, only to
flee away before the light of eternal blessedness.
The Agent in producing this mourning is the
Holy Spirit. 'T will pour * * * the Spirit of grace
and supplication." Conviction of sin is the special
work of the Holy Spirit. He uses the truth as his
sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, of the joints and marrow. He particularly
takes the truth of the sufferings and death of the
Lord Jesus, and presents that to the conscience,
pressing home the evil of rejecting such a Saviour,
such pity, such holy, yearning love, until the soul
understands what sin has cost the Lord, and melts,
SPIRIT OF GRACE AND SUPPLICATION. 133
as icebergs do, when they float down into Southern
seas.
11. A Fountain Opened. — On the day of Pente-
cost Peter pointed to those cleansing streams. "And
Peter said unto them; Repent ye, and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, unto
the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost." With marvelous force and
eloquence John Bunyan brought the force of those
words, "every one of you/' *'But I struck Him on
his head with the rod: is there any hope for me?"
Every one of you, saith the apostle. "But I spat in
his face : is there forgiveness for me ?" Yes, is the
reply, for every one of you. "But I drove the spikes
into his hands and feet, which transfixed Him to the
cross : is there cleansing for me?" Yes, cries Peter,
for every one of you. "But I pierced his side, though
He had never done me wrong; it was a ruthless,
cruel act, and I am sorry for it now^: may that sin
be washed away ?" Every one of you, is the constant
answer. Repent, and turn again, that your sins may
be blotted out. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth from all sin. If the blood of bulls
and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the
unclean, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh, how
much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through
the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without blemish
to God, cleanse your consciences!
And as it was at the beginning of this era, so it
shall be at its close — with this difference, that
whereas then some few thousand souls only stepped
134 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
into the fountain, at last a whole nation, the house
of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, shall
wash there and be cleansed. Then the words of
the apostle Peter, spoken centuries ago in Solomon's
porch, will be fulfilled, when Israel repents and turns
again; her sins will be blotted out, and there will
come times of refreshing from the presence of the
Lord, and the restoration of all things, ''whereof
God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which
have been since the world began" (Acts iii. 21).
III. The Destruction of Idolatry. — The
names of the idols will be cut off out of the land,
and the prophets and unclean spirits will be caused
to pass out of it. It is not enough for God to for-
give. He must deal with the sources of all the way-
wardness and backsliding of his people. There will
be, therefore, a strong and radical dealing with idols,
prophets, and demons.
The thoroughness of these drastic measures is
brought out in an imaginary vignette of a household
scene in those happy days. It is supposed that the
son of Godly parents, who have lately mourned for
their sins apart, and been delivered from them, sud-
denly feels himself called upon to assume the role
of a prophet. He encourages people to come to him
to detect the culprit in some theft or murder, or to
cause the rain to fall on the parched ground, or to
perform magical rites over the sick, or call up the
dead — to do, in fact, what Balaam wanted Balak
to do, when he sent for him across the desert. The
tidings come to his parents, who are so devoted in
SPIRIT OF GRACE AND SUPPLICATION, 135
their adherence to God that they would rather lose
their child than allow him to pursue his evil, God-
dishonoring work in their home. "It shall come
to pass that, when any shall yet prophecy, then his
father and his mother that begat him shall say unto
him. Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in
the name of the Lord : and his father and his mother
that begat him shall thrust him through when he
prophesieth." It would not be possible to discover
a stronger way of affirming the absolute transforma-
tion that will finally come over the Jewish people
when their devotion to God shall overpower their
natural love to their children.
The passion against idolatry and false prophets
would become so intense that the practicers of arts
which had imposed on the credulity of the people
would be ashamed and afraid to own their profes-
sion. "The prophets shall be ashamed, every one of
his vision, when he prophesieth, neither shall they
wear a hairy garment" — this being the special dress
of the sons of the prophets, by which they were at
once recognized.
If a township of people should rise against a man
suspected of being a prophet, he would vehemently
protest that they were mistaken, and that he was no
prophet. Trembling for his life, because so certain
of the temper of his accusers, he would make any
subterfuge to escape suspicion. *T am a tiller of
the ground, for I have been made a bondman from
my youth."
If, finally, in the pursuance of their hot inquiry,
136 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
they discovered marks on his body, which indicated
that he had been previously convicted and branded
for following the calling of a prophet, he would
rather assign them to the hands of his friends than
dare to admit that he had ever been suspected of
claiming to be a prophet. "One shall say unto him.
What are these wounds between thine arms ? Then
he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded
in the house of my friends."
This inquiry and reply have often been associated
with the marks of the nails in the hands of Christ.
But this is not the natural reading of the passage,
which can only be attributed in the sense above
given ; the evident drift of the passage being to show
that there will be such a revelation of the evil
wrought by the prophets, and so strong an antago-
nism against them, that those suspected of being
such will be prepared to evade the charge at any
cost, - knowing that if it is established against them
they may expect but short shrift. This will be a
deliverance, indeed, which shall be radical and final.
But if God is prepared to do so great and perfect a
work for his ancient people, let us give Him no rest
until He has utterly abolished our idols also and
purified us unto Himself — people for his possession,
zealous of good works.
XIV.
**Zhime Sbortl^ to Come to ipass/*
(Zechariah xiv.)
It is impossible to regard this mysterious and
sublime prophecy as having been already fulfilled.
'Iliere is nothing in the story of the Maccabees, nor
in the fall of Jerusalem beneath the arms of Titus,
which at all adequately fulfills the conditions of the
prophet's words. When have all nations been gath-
ered together against Jerusalem in battle? When
has the Mount of Olives rent in twain for the flight
of the besieged? What day that has ever broken
from the East has fulfilled the description of verses
6 and 7? At what time of their chequered history
have the Jews gathered the spoils of their enemies
in battle; gold and silver, and apparel, in great
abundance? Of course, it is possible to put meta-
phorical and spiritualizing interpretations on all
these touches. But to do so is to jeopardize the
whole force and value of prophetic Scripture. If
the predictions of the Advent of our Lord in the
days of his humiliation were so literally fulfilled,
why should we suppose that the predictions of his
Second Advent in great glory must be treated as
137
138 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
metaphor and trope ? Surely we are justified by the
minute accuracy of the former fulfillment to expect
as exact a fulfillment of prophecies which are still
awaiting accomplishment. When it is built, the
new Jerusalem shall comply with every line of the
Architect's plan, as communicated to the prophet.
Following, then, the successive features of the
prophet's delineation, we learn that a time is coming
when the nations of the world — which, to adopt a
modern phrase, may indicate the concert of Euro-
pean powers — will be gathered against Jerusalem
in battle, that city being held by the Jews, as yet
in unbelief. And we can hardly doubt that Zecha-
riah is here anticipating the same events as are
described by Ezekiel, when the great nations of the
north come against ''the land that is brought back
from the sword, and gathered out of many peoples,
upon the mountains of Israel, to take the spoil and
to take the prey" (Ezekiel xxxviii., xxxix.).
At first this invasion shall be completely success-
ful. "The city shall be taken, and the houses rifled,
and the women ravished" : hell let loose, and no re-
straint exerted on the excesses of the infuriated
soldiery. Then will the Lord appear to his people,
as He did to the typical Jew on the road to Damas-
cus. 'Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight
against those nations, as when He fought in the
day of battle." "Behold," says John, referring to
the same event, "He cometh with clouds, and every
eye shall see Him, and they which pierced Him, and
all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him."
THINGS SHORTLY TO COME TO PASS. 139
"In that day," to quote Ezekiel's vivid and striking
imagery, ''said the Lord, when Gog shall come
against the land of Israel, my fury shall come up
into my nostrils. And I will plead against him
with pestilence and with blood ; and I will rain upon
him, and upon his hordes, and upon the many peo-
ples that are with him, an overflowing shower, and
great hail-stones, fire, and brimstone. And I will
magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself, and I will
make Myself known in the eyes of many nations."
It is impossible to doubt that, at that time, there
will be a literal appearance of the rejected Saviour.
Where his feet often stood in the days of his flesh,
they shall stand again. "His feet shall stand in that
day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Je-
rusalem on the East. The Lord my God shall come,
and all the holy ones with Thee." In other words,
there shall be a glorious and literal fulfillment of the
reassuring words of the two men, who, clad in
white and glistening raiment, stood beside the apos-
tles on Olivet.
"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into
heaven? This Jesus, which was received up from
you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye
beheld Him going into heaven" (Acts i. 11). "And
it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God ; we
have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is
the Lord ; we have waited for Him, we will be glad
and rejoice in his salvation. For in this mountain
shall the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall be
trodden down in his place, even as straw is trodden
I40 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
down in the water of the dunghill" — (Isa. xxv. 9,
10).
It was when his brethren were in their greatest
straits that Joseph made himself known unto them ;
and when the Jews are in their dire extremity, they
will cry aloud for help and deliverance from Him
whom they rejected. That memorable scene in the
ancient land of the pyramids will be reproduced in
all its pathos, when the long-rejected Brother shall
say to his own brethren after the flesh, 'T am Jesus,
your Brother, whom ye sold unto Pilate: and now
be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye
delivered Me up to be crucified; for God did send
Me before you to preserve a remnant in the earth
and to save you alive by a great deliverance" (see
Gen. xlv. 1-15).
When this final reconciliation shall have taken
place; when the mutual blessings and embracings
have effaced the memory of the bitter past; when
the chosen people shall have recognized their great
Deliverer — He will set Himself to deliver them. It
Uiay be that they will recognize Him in the act of
their deliverance. The cleaving mountain shall
make a way of escape, as of old time the cleaving
sea. On that memorable day — ''one day, which is
known unto the Lord, not day, and not night" ;
when the cold and frost (ver. 6, r. v.^ marg.) shall
mingle with the throes of earthquake (ver. 5) ;
when the sun shall be turned into darkness and the
moon into blood; when atmospheric and cosmical
convulsions, accompanying the crisis, give evidence
THINGS SHORTLY TO COME TO PASS. 14I
of its momentous character, as the pangs of the
travail-hour in which the new age is being born —
God will destroy the face of the covering that is
cast over all peoples, and the veil that is spread
over all nations. He will swallow up death in vic-
tory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from
off all faces ; and the reproach of his people shall He
take away from off all the earth ; for the Lord hath
spoken it. How touching and significant are the
prophet's words : ''It shall come to pass, that at
evening time it shall be light." The day of Israel's
history has been long and stormy. For the most
part, heavy storm-clouds have brooded over her na-
tional life, emitting from age to age thunder and
deluges of rain ; but already there is a rim of light
on the horizon, and this is destined to grow until it
dispossesses the brooding darkness. The sun shall
yet break out and bathe the whole landscape with
warm and glowing radiance. ''At evening time
it shall be light."
Whether we shall live to see that evening we can-
not tell. But during these latter years many signs
have been giving evidence that we are approaching
one of those epoch-making moments in the history
of our race which may be called the hinges of the
ages. The despair which is settling down on some
of the noblest spirits; the excessive devotion to
pleasure which engrosses the light and vain; the
descent of empire from the gold of imperial autoc-
racy to the iron and clay of the rule of the peoples ;
the lawless disregard of family ties and sacred in-
142 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
stitutions; the bitter hatred of the Jewish people,
known as anti-Semitism, which, Hke a contagious
fever, has befallen most of the European nations;
the interesting movements among the Jews them-
selves, that known as Zionism, that identified with
the name of Rabinovitch in South Russia, and those
which are attempting the decolonization of the land
of their fathers — all these announce the near ap-
proach of the fulfillment of these words. It seems,
as we study contemporary history, that, in all like-
lihood, we are watching the first stages of scenes
destined to culminate in the public reconciliation of
the Jews with their Messiah.
The calculations of the most careful students of
prophecy also indicate that we are approaching the
time at which the times of the Gentiles run out,
and at which the chosen people must be restored to
their national prerogative and reinstated as God's
representatives before the world. ''Now from the
fig-tree learn her parable. When her branch is now
become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know
that the summer is nigh; even so ye also, when ye
see all these things, know ye that He is nigh, even
at the doors. * * * Watch therefore : for ye know
not what hour your Lord doth come."
Apparently the land of the Jews is destined to
pass through considerable changes, dating from the
time of the Lord's interposition on their behalf. The
issue of living waters east and west; the depression
of the surrounding country to the level of the Ara-
bah, from Gibeah of Saul on the north to Rimmon
THINGS SHORTLY TO COME TO PASS. 143
on the south ; the elevation of Jerusalem, as though
to a level plateau; and the removal of the curse —
are, of course, capable of metaphorical and figura-
tive treatment: but there is no precise reason for
doubting that the volcanic action, which is so clearly-
referred to in the fifth verse, will produce great
modifications of the present landscape.
That the Jews shall be entirely victorious in that
last great struggle is abundantly enforced. We learn
from Ezekiel's visions of the same event that they
that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth to
make fires of the weapons of their foes, to burn
them, so that they shall have no need to gather the
wood of the forest for fuel ; and that men will have
to be set apart for the work of burying the multi-
tudes of the dead. Here, too, v/e are told that when
Judah fights at Jerusalem (not against, see r. v.,
marg. ) , the Lord shall smite the opposing hosts with
a great plague, before which they shall be con-
sumed; and that there shall be vast spoils of gold
and silver, and apparel in great abundance.
This, surely, is the scene which the beloved apostle
depicts in marvelous phraseology, thrilling with the
splendor of his rich and glowing eloquence :
"I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and
He that sat thereon, called Faithful and True; and in right-
eousness He doth judge and make war. And his eyes are a
flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems ; and He
hath a name written, which no one knoweth but He Himself.
And He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood; and
his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which
are in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in
144 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
fine linen, white and pure. And out of his mouth proceedeth
a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations ;
and He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treadeth
the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.
And He hath on his garment and on his thigh a name written
— King of kings, and Lord of lords.
"And I saw an angel standing in the sun ; and he cried with
a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid-heaven,
Come and be gathered together unto the great supper of
God ; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of
captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses
and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both
free and bond, and small and great" (Rev. xix. 11-18).
So all Israel shall be saved. The envy also of
Ephraim shall depart; Ephraim shall not envy
Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. The
mountain of the Lord's house shall be established
in the top of the mountains, and all nations shall
flow unto it. The holy city shall arise and shine,
because her light is come, and the glory of the Lord
is risen upon her; and all the glowing words of
Isaiah's sixtieth chapter shall be gloriously fulfilled.
Behold the Lord, by many a prophet, and espe-
cially by his servant Zechariah, has proclaimed to
the end of the earth: ''Say ye to the daughter of
Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh!"
XV.
^be Millennial Bge, anD ^bis.
(Zechariah xiv., i6.)
The Feast of Tabernacles was one of the bright-
est and gladdest of all the Hebrew Festivals. It
commemorated the wanderings of the children of
Israel in the wilderness, when they dwelt in booths.
"Ye shall dwell in booths seven days," ran the
ancient words of prescription; ''all that are home-
born in Israel shall dwell in booths, that your gen-
erations may know that I made the children of Israel
to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the
land of Egypt" (Lev. xxiii. 39, etc).
The time fixed for its celebration was after the
harvest was gathered in. "On the fifteenth day of
the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the
fruits of the land, ye shall keep the feast of the Lord
seven days; on the first day shall be a solemn rest,
and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest." But
the rest of that first day was consistent with the
gathering of branches of palm trees, boughs of thick
trees, and willows of the brook. What a joyful
conjunction! The labors of the year were over,
the corn was in the barns, the wine and oil were
safely stored, the fields were resting in the mellow
145
146 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
sunshine, recuperating after their toils. From all
parts of the land the people gathered to the city of
their fathers, whose grim and ancient palaces and
fortresses were festooned with greenery, the roofs
covered with bowers, and all the open spaces packed
close with leafy tabernacles. The people made
themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his
house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the
house of God, and in the broad place of the water-
gate, and in the broad place of the gate of Eph-
raim" (Neh. viii. 16).
To the quickened eye of the prophet, scenes were
to take place again, similar to those recorded in
the books of Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezra iii. 4; Neh.
viii. 16) ; only in the glad days he anticipated there
would gather not Jews alone, acknowledging the
Divine King, but representatives of the nations of
the world, gathered out of every land, and speaking
in every tongue. "It shall come to pass, that every
one that is left of all the nations which came against
Jerusalem, shall go up from year to year to wor-
ship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the-
feast of Tabernacles." It is not requisite to believe
that the literal feasts of the old covenant shall be
restored; but that the gladness, the restfulness, the
festal array, which pervaded the city at that time
of the year, in the olden days, shall characterize the
religious life of the w^orld, the focus of which will
be "the beloved city."
The fair vision that closes the vista of the glade
of time to the Hebrew prophets, was always the
MILLENNIAL AGE, AND THIS. 147
rehabilitation of Jerusalem as the religious metropo-
lis of the world. It was so once, when the Queen
of Sheba led the devout inquirers of many lands to
hear the wisdom of Solomon. It was so when at
the day of Pentecost its streets were filled with the
Babel of languages from all the world, and men of
different garb, complexion, and religion, poured
through the tortuous streets. Spiritually, it has
been so since, for more eyes have turned to Jerusalem
than to Rome; and as the religion of Jesus has
spread, the whole trend of religious thought has been
toward the city where Christianity was born and
cradled, and which is the type of the Jerusalem
which is above, and is the mother of us all. But
such conceptions will not satisfy the rich predictions
of holy men, who spake as they were borne alon§
by the Holy Ghost. The multitude of camels shall
bring the pilgrims of the East, as the ships of Tarsh-
ish the children of the West. Through the wide-
open gates the streams of worshipers shall pour
into the city, bringing the wealth of the nations.
Instead of being forsaken and hated, so that no man
passed through, she shall become an eternal excel-
lency, the joy of many generations.
Even in those halcyon days when righteousness
shall begin to cover the earth — as waters the sea —
when tidal waves of salvation shall sweep over the
nations, some will be recalcitrant. The true con-
ception of the Millennium does not imply that every
single soul will be regenerate; but that the prepon-
derating influences of the world shall be in favor of
148 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
whatsoever things are just, pure, lovely, and of good
report. As now the heavenlies are filled with the
evil spirits, who rule the darkness of this world, so
then they shall be filled with Christ and his saints,
who shall rule the cities and continents in the direc-
tion of righteousness, temperance, and peace. But
even under these favorable circumstances, the evil
of the human heart will break out into obstinate
rebellion, and some will refuse to submit to Israel's
God. "And it shall be, that whoso of all the families
of the earth goeth not up to Jerusalem to worship
the King, the Lord of Hosts, upon them there shall
be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up,
and come not, * * * there shall be the plague."
This adaptation of punishment to the circum-
stances of the lands which are the objects of Divine
chastisement is very significant. Clearly it would
be no punishment to the land of Egypt for rain to
be withheld, as her prolific harvests depend on her
mighty river. But she shall not therefore escape
judgment; but for her there shall be the stroke of
the plague. God leaves no sin unchastised ; but He
knows how to lay his hand on the spot where we
are most vulnerable. There He touches us, and
thus we are brought most swiftly to repentance.
We cry, "Ah, if it had been anything but that, I
could have borne it; but that was my Benjamin, my
Rachel, the apple of my eye, the one sensitive spot
where I am capable of the intensest suffering."
At this juncture a shaft of light breaks over the
coming age, which stands revealed in all its beauties
MILLENNIAL AGE, AND THIS. 149
of holiness. We all know that the High Priest
wore on his forehead a golden plate, on which the
sacred words, Holiness to the Lord, were en-
graved. It was always on his miter, held there by
its lace of blue, that the people of Israel might be
accepted before the Lord (Exod. xxviii. 36-38).
But here the prophet sees that same inscription on
the bells of the horses, and the common vessels of
household use. "In that day shall there be upon
the bells of the horses. Holiness unto the Lord;
and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the
bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem
and Judah shall be Holiness unto the Lord of
Hosts."
Holiness stands for three things : Separation from
sin and unbecomingness ; devotion to the service of
God; and that growing likeness to Him which is
the necessary consequence of receiving Him as an
Almighty Tenant of the heart. For holiness can
never be an inherent and personal attribute ; it must
always be ours in proportion as we are God-pos-
sessed and God-filled. They are holiest who have
most of God. It is a remarkably vivid portrayal of
the distinction between Judaism and Christianity,
that the word, which of all others characterized the
exclusiveness and limitations of the old law, should
be here appropriated to the most ordinary and com-
monplace of domesticities.
We have here, first, the abolition of the distinc-
tion between sacred and secular. Some people
resemble ships, which are built in water-tight com-
150 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
partments; all their religion is kept carefully apart
from the ordinary interests and pursuits of their
existence. For instance, they go religiously to their
place of worship on Sunday, but would be almost
horrified if you were to mention the name of God
in their drawing-room, or at the dining-table. They
might even look at their guest reprovingly, as much
as to say. There is a place and a time for everything,
but not here or now. With such, Holiness to the
Lord is well enough for the high priest and for the
sanctuary; but it has no place on the bells of the
horses, or the vessels of household use. Certainly
the hostler in the stable, or the domestic servant
about her duties, would have no right to use so
reverend a designation.
But surely this rigid separation between duties
as sacred and duties as secular, between clean and
unclean, between holy and common, cannot be justi-
fied in the face of the teachings of the New Testa-
ment, which bid us do all, even eating and drinking,
in the name of the Lord Jesus, and for the glory of
God (i Cor. X. 31; Col. iii. 17).
Besides, consider the genius and inner heart of
Christianity, (i) /^ brings us into the possession
of a new life. We are Christians, not because we
avow a certain creed, or conform to certain outward
exercises ; but because we have received the life, the
Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was
manifested unto us in Jesus. And is it possible to
restrict the manifestations of life? Can a flower
weave its petals and exhale its fragrance to order?
MILLENNIAL AGE, AND THIS, 15 1
Can the young things of the woodlands and meadows
be thus today and something else tomorrow ? Can
a child observe days and times in its laughter, its
tears, its appetite? Is not God's life always the
same in its abundant and infinite variety ? So surely
the life of God in the soul should, and must, express
itself in all the outgoings of our existence — in
speech, act, movement — equally on the six days as
the one day ; as much in the kitchen, or the shop, as
the church. If you are possessed by the life of the
Holy One, it will as certainly appear as the idiosyn-
crasy of your character, which underlies, molds
and fashions your every gesture.
(2) Moreover, Christianity is Consecration to
Christ. It may be questioned if we have a right
to call ourselves Christians unless we regard Him
as our Judge, our Lawgiver, and our King, and are
deliberately obeying and serving Him. But if we
are going to reserve our religion to certain days,
places, and actions, we necessarily exclude Him
from all that is not contained within the fences we
erect. If it be measured by days, we exclude from
the government, and therefore the peace, of Christ,
at least six-sevenths of our time. Does the owner
of a slave expect his ownership to be curtailed and
narrowed after this fashion? Would he consider
that he was receiving the value of his purchase-
money, which he had paid down for the exclusive
and unceasing rights of proprietorship? And what
right have we to suppose that our Master Christ
will be satisfied with an arrangement which asks
152 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
Him to accept a part for the whole, a composition
for the entire debt?
(3) Then, also, the needs of the world demand
an entire and unbroken religious life. The world
does not see us in our religious exercises, whether
in our private retirement or our public worship. It
has no idea, therefore, of the anguish of our peni-
tence, the earnestness of our desires for a righteous
and noble life, the persistency of our endeavors.
And if we do not give evidence of our religion in
our dealings with matters that the men of the world
understand, they will naturally and rightly consider
that religion is an unpractical dream, the child of
superstition and emotion. We need to witness to
the world, where its paths intersect ours, and in
regard to matters it can appreciate. If we are
found to be more patient, truthful, honest, than
other men; if our integrity can only be accounted
for by causes beyond our ken — then the children of
this age will be prepared to acknowledge that we
have come into contact with sources of life and
strength, which are clearly realities, but of which
they know nothing.
For these reasons, we should refuse to maintain
the false distinction between things that are sacred
and those that are secular. There are right and
wrong things in the world. The wrong ones are,
of course, to be fenced out of our lives; but all
right ones are sacred. Everything that may be done
at all, may be done to Christ, and in being done to
Him, is rendered holy. The hostler with his horses,
MILLENNIAL AGE, AND THIS. 153
the servant with the vessels of her household service,
the clerk with his pen, the mechanic with his tool,
the guide with his alpenstock, the artist with his
camera, may realize that those mystic words are
graven on his forehead, and on the instrument of
his toil. And each one of us, on entering the work-
shop of his life, may feel that he is serving God
there as much as if he were entering the shrine of
some holy temple, and were called to minister at
God's altar. The pots and vessels may be looked
on as though they were the vessels in which the
victim's blood was collected as it flowed from the
sacrificial knife.
II. There may be the Inclusion of many
THINGS WHICH ONCE SEEMED SeCULAR^ IF WE CAN
Consecrate them to Christ. — The Jews were
forbidden to own horses. With a tear in his voice,
the sacred chronicler records it as a sign of Solo-
mon's degeneracy that he brought horses up out of
Egypt. Horses were associated with the pride and
pomp of kings, and savored of the arm of flesh,
therefore they were prohibited. ''Some trust in
chariots," said the psalmist, ''and some in horses;
but we will remember the name of the Lord our
God." But here they are specially accepted and
acknowledged. They are included in the prophet's
anticipation of the blessed future. But, notice.
Holiness to the Lord is now engraven upon the
bells that make sweet music as they move.
What a graphic and significant manner of teach-
ing one of the profoundest lessons!
154 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
Judaism, with its special days, places, and men,
had its part in the religious training of the race.
It was the kindergarten of human childhood; but
when we become men, we put away childish things.
Probably every life, in its earliest stages, must be
fenced and partitioned off from things which, how-
ever innocent in themselves, are prejudicial to its
development. It was impossible for God to teach
men what holiness meant, save by this process of
prohibition, of separation, and of setting apart.
But, when the lesson was fully learned, the Levitical
code was abolished, and Jesus came, saying, "It
was said to them of old time ; * * * but / say
unto you." The horses which might not be used,
came to be as much in vogue as the bowls of the
altar or the household vessels, and to bear upon
their harness the significant sentence that gleamed
aforetime on the forehead of Aaron and his sons.
In the middle ages, saintly souls dreaded to enter
the sacred relationships of home, and thought that
the babble and prattle of babes, and the love of wife,
were inimical to their highest interests. But they
sadly misread Christ's meaning; they forgot that
He sat at Cana's feast; they failed to understand
that nothing included in God's original creation
could be common and unclean. It is a more excel-
lent and Christ-like way to follow the dictates of
nature and of the heart, only with the resolve and
purpose that human love should be a chalice full of
the Eternal and the Divine, and that on the most
MILLENNIAL AGE, AND THIS, 155
intimate relationships of life "Holiness to the Lord"
should be inscribed.
So with recreation. It is not wrong to unbend
the bow in manly games, that develop the sinews
and expand the lungs, or to join in the pastimes
of your age and companions, so long as you can
write on bat and football, on lawn tennis bat and
piano, on oar and paddle, on skate or sleigh, the
words of the High Priest's frontal. Holiness to
THE Lord. Whatever you cannot pray over, refuse
to touch. Whatever you cannot make a matter of
prayer and consecration is legitimate. Every thing
is good, and not to be refused, which can be received
with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the Word
of God and prayer.
The same rule applies to the enjoyment of nature,
of art, of music, of beautiful objects, whether sculp-
tured or carved, photographed or painted. True
holiness does not consist in bare walls, and hard
seats, and a dingy environment; but in all that
resembles God's work in nature, which is exquis-
itely beautiful, whether it be the creepers that change
to crimson in the autumn, or the enameling of the
rocks, or the tesselated floors of the w^oodlands, or
the silver features of the stars.
Take the horses into the economy of your life;
only see to it that the memory of "Holiness to the
Lord" recurs to you at every movement of their
arching necks.
(3) Let us note that there must be an elevation
of all life to the level of our sacred and religious
156 THE PROPHET OF HOPE.
moments. It would be, of course, possible to oblit-
erate the distinction between sacred and secular by
treating all as secular ; but this would be a desecra-
tion of our life indeed. The process is not one of
leveling-down, but of leveling-up. The Lord's
house must be established ''on the top of the moun-
tains," and all nations are to flow to it. It is not
that the priest is to take off his sacred emblem when
he enters the sanctuary; but that he is to put it on
when he goes to the stable to mount his horse. It
is not that the bowls of the altar are to be ejected
from their sacred office there ; but that common ves-
sels— "every pot in Jerusalem and Judah" — is to be
treated with equal regard. It is not that the sanc-
tuary is to be abolished; but that all other places
are to become oratories for prayer and shrines for
holy service. It is thus that we are able to dwell in
the house of the Lord all the days of our life.
We cannot make all time sacred unless we set
apart special hours and days for God. We cannot
carry the spirit of pure and undefiled religion among
our fellows, unless we often enter into our closet
and shut the door, and pray unto our Father, who
is in secret. We cannot do all tasks to the glory
of God, unless we have mountains of transfiguring
prayer. We cannot read all books and papers in a
religious spirit, unless we are loving and systematic
Bible-students. We cannot use ordinary vessels as
though they were the bowls of the altar, unless we
handle the bowls of that altar, which is in the pos-
session of all holy souls, who do not serve the taber-
MILLENNIAL AGE, AND THIS. 157
nacle. "Wherefore, forsake not the assembling of
yourselves, as the manner of some is"; * * *
and, "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy."
So many bells ring out in our lives. The morn-
ing wakening bell, and the school bell; the work
bell for the mechanic, and the shop bell for the
assistant; the visitors' bell on one side of the door,
and the tradesmen's on the other ; the wedding bells
with their merry peal, and the funeral bells with
their sorrowful monotone; the bicyclist's bell warn-
ing the foot passenger on to the pavement, and the
bells on the sleigh horses, as they draw the vehicle
over the frozen snow. To many of these, in times
past, we have given a lethargic, listless, and indolent
response; we have resented their intrusion on our
slumbers and plans; we have chafed against their
peremptory summons. But enough of this. Hence-
forth, let us hear in their clangor or chime the call
of God to the tasks to which He summons us; let
us obey with alacrity, looking to Him for grace
and strength to do whatever He would have us do,
and realizing that on each the inscription of Aaron's
frontal-piece is engraven,
"HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD."
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